Reprisal Born from Shadows
by Aurorabeam Corporation
Summary: Life was never simple for Ash Ketchum. He lost every time to his rival, betrayed by his friends and watched them murder his real friends. Saved by a certain alpha pokémon, he vowed to become the best and bring judgment upon those who would wish him dead. (Return in Vengeance Rewrite)(Formerly called: "Pokemon: The Final Judgment") (Rewrite of: "Return in Vengeance")
1. Chapter 0: The First Beginning

**Hello, hello hello! Welcome to the rewrite of 'Return in Vengeance'. Now you may be curious about our decision to rewrite this story, eh?**

**Pigeoncracker: Yo!**

**Author: Oh! I almost forgot! Say hello to my Guest and the story Co- Writer: Pigeoncracker!**

**Pigeoncracker: Thank you! Thank you!**

**Mew: Calm down, it's just the reader- Ow!**

**Latios: Shut up, be polite with your guests.**

**Lucario: Hey Pigeon. Thank you for your help on rewriting this story. We really appreciated your work here.**

**Pigeoncracker: Ehehehehehe ... it's no problem, guys.**

**Author: Really, you just outdone yourself. I can't always write like this, you know?**

**Pigeoncracker; Ehehe- Wait, what?**

**Mew: Awkward! *Pushes Author out***

**Lucario: Anyway, we don't have much things to say here. Pigeoncracker is our Co- Writer of this story ...**

**Pigeoncracker: ...**

**Mew: ...**

**Latios: ...**

**Absol: ... I'm out *Absol walks out***

**Lucario: I think that's all we can tell you. Please remember to Favorite this story if you like it!**

**Latios: And if you love reading this story and want more, please press that Subscribe button below!**

**Lucario: Wait, Subscribe button? You think this is some kind of Youtube or something?**

**Latios: Follow! Yeah, I mean, Follow button!**

**Pigeoncracker: Hehe, and don't forget to Read-and-Review the story because we want to know your opinion about this story.**

**Latios: And that too.**

**Mew: Constructive Reviews please. Any negative reviews without any rational reason are considered flame, and those who does that can go and fuck yourself!**

**Latios: I think ... that's all we want to say. Good bye ... *Sweat-drop***

* * *

**Chapter Info: Chapter 0  
**

**Rating: T**

**Words Count: 6649 Words (Current Chapter)**

**Date/Time Posted: 08:03 - 4/13/2015  
**

**Writer: Aurorabeam**

**Co- Writer: Pigeoncracker**

**Beta-Read: (None)**

**Proofread: (None)**

**Other Notes:**

"Hello" **-** **Normal Speech  
"Hello" - Pokemon Speech  
_"Hello"_ \- Technology Speaking/Announcement  
**"_Hello_" **\- Telepathy  
**"_Hello_" **\- Private Telepathy  
**'_Hello_'** \- Thought  
**

**Warnings: Minor Physiological Theme. 13+ (T) Violence Scene. Not for kids! I bet you'll get nightmares. Rewrite of 'Return in Vengeance'. More Warning will be added soon.  
**

**Last Chapter Stat (Chapter Unknown)(-/-/-):  
Views: Unknown  
Favorites: Unknown  
Followers: Unknown  
Reviews: Unknown  
Communities: Unknown  
**

**|We are proud to represent our story. We hope you have pleasant experience reading with us|**

* * *

**Chapter 0: The Beginning**

* * *

"AGHH! Someone help me please- OMPH"

We come upon the scene of two people in the middle of the small town of Pallet, the taller one sitting on the back of the shorter, younger one. An easily identifiable yellow Pikachu skirted off away from the punishment in progress, giving his trainer one last look that easily said "You're on your own, buddy."

"ASH KETCHUM! What do you have to say about yourself; not calling me for A MONTH, outrageous!" Delia practically spat onto her child. Not wanting to hurt her son, but not being gentle either. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Ash didn't answer and continued to flounder around under Delia, his face turning all different sorts of colors in the process as he struggled to get blood to his feet and air in his lungs. His mother noticed and decided that she had inflicted enough pain upon him and got up; she wasn't the sadistic mother like some people she knows. After he was comfortably breathing again, he spat out the month in a condensed ball of information that Delia could barely keep up with.

"I got really distracted by trying to win the League and they didn't have any accessible phones nearby!" He stuttered, then brightened, "I got into the top 8 in the Unova league too!" Delia wiped the wrathful look off of her face and instead replaced it with a more skeptical one.

"They didn't have any at the Pokémon Center?"

"Nope, they were all out of service for most of the month, I am SO sorry about not calling you," Ash pleaded. Delia sighed in defeat, she could do nothing about broken phones or her son's short attention span. At least she could give him some information that might make him a bit happier; the fearful look on his face was breaking her heart.

"Fine, but before you go rush of somewhere, Gary said that he and Professor Oak wanted to show you something that they-" In a flash, he was off running towards the lab practically skipping the whole way in excitement.

Delia slowly shook her head in exasperation. _That child of mine has to have some sort of disorder, ADD maybe?_ She thought to herself walking back to her house on the way.

* * *

Ash could barely hold on of this excitement before he started to skip or something. Whenever Oak called him to the lab, not so much Garry, it was usually something pretty exciting; like a new Pokémon for his Pokedex or some new gear. Whatever it is, it has to be good!

As he sprinted up the paved, mossy path. Ash nearly ran over a small yellow blur with a splotch of red clutched to its underbelly. "Pikachu! What are you doing, I thought you went to the house," Then he spied the bottle of ketchup clutched tightly in his paws. "Oh…"

"Pika!" The mouse jumped up onto his usual spot on the trainers shoulder and sat there contentedly, sucking the bottle like he hadn't had food in days. Ash decided to leave the Pikachu to its own devices and continued on at a slower pace; just make sure that his new passenger wasn't knocked off in his ecstatic sprint to the lab.

When he got there, Ash was a mess. Hair practically a puddle of chaos in top of his head, ketchup running down the front of his shirt where Pikachu decided it would be fun to see what shocking the bottle would do, burn marks on his arm because of said Pokémon. Apparently the bottle exploding was not what the Pikachu was expecting.

As he stood there heaving and coughing right outside the door to the lab, Gary came out to see what all the ruckus was and found Ash in his current abysmal state.

"My my, what happened to you?" He actually sounded worried for a second in Ash opinion, but it was in a teasing manner. "Oh! So Delia told you about our project?" Ash shook his head.

"She didn't tell me anything about it, just that you and Oak wanted to see me about something you were working on." Gary beamed at this information.

"Well, more for the surprise then! It's just inside the lab, you'll love it." Hearing this information Ash drew upon his energy reserves and bolted towards the lab door; the automatic door decided that it didn't feel like opening at that moment.

_**BANG!**_

Gary just chuckled at the younger boy's antics and walked straight through the door, having absolutely no problem with it and disappearing into the depths of the lab. Ash sighed and dusted himself off, ignoring Pikachu's protesting squeals from being flung off of his shoulder. He tentatively inched towards the door, prodding it with a wayward stick to make sure it would open; it luckily did but not without protesting.

When the teenager finally entered the building, a new object had appeared in the room that was not there before. Ash frowned at it.

"What is THAT?!"

It was a large black case placed on one of the tables at the side of the reception room. It had radiation symbols and explosive warnings all over it. Garry wanted him to see something that could kill someone! Heck no! Why would he go near that thing, it would probably cause him to grow another eye or something…

Garry, after rummaging through the back of the lab to find what he wanted to give to Ash, finally grabbed the elusive glowing object with a triumphant "Aha!" He walked back to the lobby and come upon the amusing sight of Ash slowly backing away from part of his "surprise" like it would suddenly grow teeth and eat him.

"Oh, don't worry about the case! It doesn't actually have any radiation or explosives in it. Gramps ran out of boxes and decided to dig this one out of storage." Ash didn't believe him but stayed still in the spot he was in out of curiosity. As Gary reached for the latch on the ominous box, Ash had to physically stop himself from leaving by chewing on his index finger.

The latches snapped open with a crack the rivaled the biggest thunder that his Pikachu could muster, causing everyone except the aforementioned lab assistant to jump nearly through the ceiling.

"See! Aren't they beautiful…?" Garry trailed off the objects in the now open case captivating his gaze. As Ash hesitantly sauntered over, he couldn't help but agree with his old rival.

Inside, there were two brightly lit stones of varying colors, but as Ash drew closer he could that they seemed to settle on one color now that he was able to study them. They also seemed to be glowing with a drawn out pulse of their respective colors. The one on the left side of the case was a mediocre blue color while the one on the right glowed a dark pink; both had a shiny, slightly broken and flecked flame-like pattern running through the center of the stone adding to its reflective nature.

"What are they?" Ash inquired. Gary turned his head and looked at him like he was the biggest moron in the world.

"These are mega stones, they were confiscated from some smugglers early this month near us and given to us to study." Ash was going to ask what they do, but Gary beat him to it. "They unlock an alternate form for the Pokémon, without causing them any pain." He quickly added at Ash's stare, "It gives them more power and raises their stats significantly. These two in question are for Charizard and Mewtwo."

"Wow!" Ash exclaimed enthusiastically. He couldn't wait to try this new mega evolution out! That was what Gary wanted him to do presumably… Right? At Ash's inquisitive look, Gary chuckled and handed the boy a flexible black ring that contained a stone in the center that shimmered more colors than he could count. Ash squealed a higher pitch than Gary thought was possible for the human vocal cords, grabbed the case and launched himself through the glass automatic door. It screeched in protest as the hyperactive boy flashed out of the room with his faithful Pikachu barely holding on to him.

"Hey, you forgot something!" Garry hollered at the teen, but he was already long gone. He looked woefully at the trail ahead of him knowing that he had to catch up to the boy and give him another one of those mega stones. It was an entirely white stone that had a golden flame design in the middle of the large jewel. Professor Oak had him keep it on his person because he suspected Team Rocket would try to reclaim or take the Mega stones. It would help to not have them all in the same spot.

Sighing again, he began to trail after Ash at a slow jogging pace, silently cursing his name every other step that took him closer to his target. He didn't even ask how to use them… Gary thought amusedly to himself.

Ash had stopped in a clearing not that far from the lab, but away from the trail and places that people could be in; just to make sure that no one got hurt. As he took out the glowing stones and the weird leather harnesses that looked like they had a metal contraption to hold the stones. As he held the weird apparatus is his hand, he realized something.

He had no idea how to use this device.

So he pressed it.

It pebble like rock clicked when Ash put some weight on it, for being so tiny and light it was deceptively hard to depress. It was like a tiny safety system just in case he should bump it into the miscellanies objects and people he encounters. When the button had reached the bottom of its well, the stones that came with it in the case glowed slightly brighter than before. Ash figured that they tied in with the button and the bracelet was how he activated the mega evolution.

Trial and error works wonders He mused to himself. Well, no time like the present! Peering down at his poke balls, he selected the one that contained his Charizard and launched the ball towards the empty space in front of him. White tendrils exploded out from the Poke-Ball, blooming out like a flower before coming together to form the red dragon Pokémon. Ash then kneeled down to catch the red and white ball as it rolled back to its master.

The Pokémon stared at him, then Pikachu, and then back. He just grunted after his inspection and moved closer to the trainer with a cautious growling lightly the whole time as if something that the trainer had smelled funny… Wait. Ash took out the red mega stone that seemed to glow brighter in the Dragon's presence and held it up towards the red-colored Pokémon.

He took one sniff of it, and another deeper one and another even deeper one. Ash sighed at the unexpected effect of being near the stones for the first time and went to grab the harness thing from the case that Gary had given him. He held up the necklace like object to Charizard, trying to figure out where the thing would be placed. And it fit just like that, a necklace. The Dragon bent his head slightly to allow Ash an easier time putting the medallion on his Pokémon. When it was fully on, it shrunk to a tighter size to fit snugly on the Pokémon's neck, "gluing" itself to Charizard's chest so it didn't fall off or fly around in the middle of a battle.

In all, it wasn't actually that noticeable on the Pokémon as it seemed to blend in slightly with whatever Pokémon it was attached to. Ash decided that he would try out the mega stone later as he wanted to show his friends as a surprise. They might actually be impressed for once.

Charizard let out an irritable growl as the Poke-Ball restrained him once again within its confines. The Dragon had obviously wanted to try out the new form that instant! But willingly went into the Poke-Ball as he knew that Ash would eventually let him use it. After cleaning up the mess he had made, Ash was lightly tapped on the shoulder by a wild Gary.

"Agh! Don't startle me like that Garry you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Pikachu grinned deviously at this and rubbed his paws together sparking electricity between them in increasingly larger voltages. At seeing this, Ash's eyes widened considerably. "No Pikachu! I didn't actually mean that I was- AHHHHHHHH!"

Gary couldn't help the hysterical giggle that bubbled up from his throat seeing his rival incapacitated in such a way. "Anyway, I came to give you something that I forgot to give you before you left." Since the trainer was still very much unconscious, Pikachu helpfully offered to take the stone to give to his trainer once he woke up.

After making sure that the yellow mouse was absolutely sure that he could hold the surprisingly dense stone securely, Gary trotted back towards the lab at a leisurely pace, knowing that his grandfather would be there and that he would have to tell him where the stones were now located. He knew that he would approve of his decision of letting Ash use them, but if they suddenly disappeared from the lab without his notice then he would flip and blame it all on himself.

Ash eventually got up from his near death experience and after cleaning up the mess he had created, followed Gary down the pathway.

* * *

"Humph, where has that darn boy run off to now?" Professor Oak muttered. Currently residing inside of Delia's house with Brock, Misty, May, Max, Dawn, Trip, Iris, and Cilan, watching out for the young boy was a task Delia had assigned him before she left to go fetch something from a neighbor's house. He never could stay in one place for long periods of time. Oak mused to himself, but Garry had said that he wanted to show Ash something; those mega-stones most likely. Gary had been infatuated with those things since they had been sent to them for research. Though, he had much more pressing matters currently.

"I can't believe Ash lost the Unova league!" Misty muttered more to herself than anyone. She and the others of the group were situated around one of Delia's coffee tables in the main living room; sprawled out haphazardly on the couches and armchairs around the room.

"Yeah, he's placed in Top 8, again. Some things never change…" Max shattered the frozen silence by stating this slightly true, but harsh information.

"He was once seen as a mentor to me, now he's just a filthy Trubbish!" May added from where she was making food in the kitchen. Oak could hardly believe what he was hearing. They had followed Ash through Hell and made it back relatively untouched, and they would suddenly just through him away now?! The whole time that Ash was hanging out with them had just been a façade and now their real opinions were shining through the cracks? This could not have happened spontaneously, it would have had to be a big event to cause them to turn on him this fast…

"I wager that I could beat him in any mock battle that he could throw at me," Trip boasted, "That fool will never get anywhere close to winning a League, and yet the little basted still fruitlessly tries to beat them!"

"The punk wants to be a Pokémon master, not in the entire time that I have met him has he ever shown that he was master material. I doubt he could even be accepted as a gym leader!" Another blunt fact pointed out by Iris, everyone knows that Ash has a happy go lucky attitude towards life; he only took things seriously when he had to save the world (Again), or other people's life was in danger.

"Even his battle strategy has started to become dull and useless, just like him!" Cilan continued. Everyone seemed to be in a mutual agreement about the young trainer except for Dawn, who was frowning at all of this negativity, and Oak, who was understandably shocked witless before he could reprimand the group about their behavior. Dawn was the first to try to placate the rest of her troupe as Oak was still catching flies in the corner.

"I don't think Ash is as bad as you make him out to be. I mean, he lost the tournament, but he still managed to gain a respectable position." Everyone but the professor snapped their heads to the person that had interrupted their hate fest. Dawn visibly sweat dropped and moved backward several steps.

"Dawn, he lost the battle against possibly one of the weakest people in the final 10. Instead of leaving Pikachu on the ground and attacking while his opponents Pokémon had its guard down, he chose to move the stupid mouse out of the fire blast that going to hit him while it was fainted." Iris irritably explained.

"How are those the actions of a good trainer?" Max finished.

"Seriously, is that what you believe? That's just harsh." Dawn valiantly tried to defend one of her best friends, "He just needs time to train his Pokémon. He's just not ready for the challenges that oppose him."

There was a small sliding sound and a thump that came from the corner of the room. When someone decided to take their wrathful glare off of Dawn long enough to find out what had caused the small commotion. They found that Oak had just fainted and was currently on the floor in a fetal position. Deeming this incident as a problem of no importance, they all resumed their argument.

"Yeah right, how long have you trained your Pokémon with him, two months? YOU HAVE TRAINED WITH HIM FOR OVER A YEAR DAWN! If he couldn't win the tournament with that amount of training there must be something wrong with the trainer, not the Pokémon." Misty Exclaimed, ready to rush over there and bash the girls head in with her infamous mallet at a moment's notice. Dawn was taken aback by this; she couldn't believe something as small and insignificant as this could grow to sizes that would swallow mountains if left unchecked.

"Oh come on, Ash needs just a little push-" Misty stopped her in mid-sentence by brandishing her mallet.

"What push?" Trip arrogantly commented, "He doesn't push his Pokémon. He claims that Pokémon are all about friendship, and look at what it gets him."

"His Pokémon are powerful and his game is not just luck. Remember when Ash saved Giratina, Arceus and his jewel, Palkia and Dialga from the meddling of some villainous team; I've stopped caring to remember their names though…" Dawn mentioned. Everyone who was conscious rolled their eyes at the stubborn trainer. Trip for one didn't believe this so-called "story" for a heartbeat.

"We've all met legendary Pokémon because of him, but that's not the point. He needs to forget this foolish dream of his; it's bad for his health and it's getting us in more trouble than we can handle." Brock complained, "We need to convince him to let it go and do something productive."

"I still remember the moment I met Mewtwo on New Island, when Mew and Mewtwo had started fighting for dominance, Ash tried to stop them from fighting and ran in-between them. They both did not stop their feud and he got hit by two powerful psychic blasts. Stone replaced Ash that day and he was well and truly gone for a while." May added, ignoring Brocks' addition to the conversation. After a moment's consideration, Brock realized just how lucky his friend is.

"And he was revived through the Pokémon's tears, shed because their greatest ally had fallen. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen!" Brock declared. Everyone's eyes immediately widened at this new information, not really believing it but, weirder things have happened around him…

Now almost past hate Ash moment, it started to turn onto how Ash has saved all the Legendaries. Everyone was feeling nostalgic and just rolled with it.

"Didn't he also help Lugia save Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres back at Shamounti Island? I still remember that Ash almost died because poachers were trying to get the Legendaries and Ash was in their way. He only survived because he jumped into the ocean and Lugia happened to be nearby to prevent him from drowning." Brock, having been on nearly every one of Ash's escapades from the start of his career was turning out to be quite the story teller.

"He saved Mew and the Tree of Beginning, rescued Reshiram from team rocket too!" Cilan mentioned. That had been one of his favorite adventures and he had heard amazing stories about the other.

"Bad luck just seems to follow him like a favorite hound, doesn't it?" Most whipped around to stare at Trip because of the sudden deviation from the subject. He raised a placating hand and continued. "Now just hear me out, whenever Ash goes near any of the Legendaries, there is always some sort of catastrophic event that happens soon after. Do you really believe that it is just one bug coincidence?"

Oak happened to wake up at that moment, wincing as the harsh white light burned an after-image into his retinas. The last thing that he heard before the group set out on some sort of mission was,

"You nailed the Diglett on the head with that one, the only way we could get rid of this streak is to get rid of him, permanently." May decided, though it was infringing upon the law, she assumed the good outweighed the bad and just went it. This suggestion was met with a symphony of "Yes!" and "Let's kill that SOB!"

"Let's give him our worst!" Trip encouraged, really wanting to see this insolent fool be brought down to Earth. Hard. Oak quickly stumbled up off of the floor, but he was too slow to catch them before they left. Something else snagged his mind when he lurched over to the general area the little group was sitting.

Alcohol.

_This is bad, this is really really bad!_ He told himself, the group might do something drastic under the effects of the drink. He had to warn Ash and Garry somehow or get to the lab faster than they could. Peering out of one of the windows, he saw the group disappear into the long end of the path. Grabbing his stuff, Oak bolted out of the house at a speed to rival a Jolteon on a sugar high.

_I can still make it if I take the shortcut and run all the way there!_

* * *

"So Garry, what are we doing back here?"

"Ash, you can't just expect to make a mess and have someone else clean it up for you! You," He grabbed the young teen and dragged him over with a devious smile gracing his lips, "Are going to help me get everything into order." Ash's smile reversed polarity so fast you could have sworn that it was possible to break reality with an expression.

"What! Come on, let's at least see what Oak wants with us first, he looks like he is a hurry." Maybe the professor would save him from the task cleaning up that lab. As they both drew up closer to Oak, the sickly sweet smell of sweat permeated the air all around him, making Ash draw away from him a little.

"They- *gasp* -are coming for you! Ash, hide from them!" Ash was, like any ordinary person, was confused by this statement. He was about to ask what the heck that meant, but Oak stopped him when he finally caught up with his breath. "All of your friends are coming to try to kill you for something that you didn't do!"

"I'm sure that this is a mistake, they will only be angry for a few more moments. All they need is to blow off some steam." Ash was understandably terrified by the prospect of death, but it was his friends that had been with him for more than a couple of years. What reasons would they have to suddenly turn on him and threaten him like that! "I'm going to go and talk to them, see what the problem is…"

As Ash walked out of the room and to the destroyed automatic door, Oak shook his head in exasperation, "Garry, you better tail him, make sure he isn't hurt. Make sure you take a Pokémon, things could get hairy out there fast." The professor warned. Gary nodded his head in understanding and grabbed Umbreon's Poke-Ball from a nearby counter before following the rash boy.

"Hey! That's not very nice, and what do you mean I am bad luck and need to be removed!" Ash protested. His "friends" just ignored the comment and continued on insulting him in the most volatile ways possible.

"Whenever you go on an adventure of some sort, a legendary is suddenly in trouble. Henceforth, why you need to either be wiped off this planet or stay in a remote area for the rest of your life," Trip then rethought that sentence, "Actually, there could be a legendary wherever we put you. Killing you is a much better idea!"

Ash staggered, the only thing keeping him upright being Gary. He shot him a grateful look and hoisted himself back on his own feet. Why are they- how could they- He's never had someone threaten to end his life, never had anyone try to kill him. And these threats had come from the most unlikely sources, his closest friends. Ash felt like someone had hung him by his own intestines. He thought that he would never feel betrayal, but alas, here we are in this screwed up place.

"It's like you're conspiring with the enemy or something. All of these attacks seem to be coordinated with your arrival and your appearance is just to cover them while they distract the Legendaries to do… Who knows what?!" Dawn spat out, the words acid upon her tongue, but if she didn't betray Ash all of her friends would disown her. Self-preservation won that argument and she reluctantly followed the others.

"We have to do this, go Lampent! Use Shadow Ball on Ash!" With a light popping sound and a burst of light, Trip released one of his strongest Pokémon. No small amount of befuddlement nagged the lamp Pokémon, but it still diligently followed its trainers order. Ash couldn't believe his own eyes as the shadow ball grew above one of the Lament's appendages.

They say that before death, the world slows down to give you a chance to live, and Ash was experiencing just that. He could see the individual swirls of air circle the dark orb with a snake-like grace as it revolved. The ball almost seemed to be a small animal that was eager to be released, jerking slightly towards its target with every passing moment. And eventually, it got its wish and lunged toward the unlucky victim, almost glowing with malicious intent so dark that it warped the air around it. What transpired, to put it simply.

Ash ducked.

There was a cry of pain as the ball collided with something directly behind Ash, the loud thump of someone falling to the ground followed soon after. He whipped around to identify the source of the commotion, and he would've fallen over again. If he hadn't been sprinting as fast as he could over to Gary's side.

Gary raised one trembling hand clasped around a Poke-Ball, the limb filled with veins of a shadow of the darkest type. Humans weren't meant to take the full brunt of Pokémon attacks and survive such a thing. The next thing that Gary murmured forced Ash to lean closer to his face for they were almost inaudible. "Take- Umbreon- Defend- Keep her- Safe."

Ash wanted to say something to comfort his passing, but no such words would form in his mouth. He decided that teaching these brats a lesson would be good enough for Garry to pass on peacefully. "Pikachu, Umbreon, teach these murderers a lesson!" His friends balked at the use of "murderers", he thought that they might not have meant to harm Garry, but they did anyway. And now they're going to pay!

Both of the Pokémon released also looked confused with the situation, not knowing what to make of it. When they turned around to see what everyone but Ash was staring at, they immediately shared their horrified look. Then looking to who Ash was glaring at, and they immediately put two and two together, they came up with eight targets that needed to be taught a brutal lesson.

Fur bristled and growls issued from their throats. Umbreon, not waiting for her impromptu trainers command, immediately lunged towards the nearest non-friendly target. Ash reached out a hand to try to restrain the renegade eveelution, but to no avail for the Pokémon was already far out of his reach. She's going to get herself killed rushing into a battle like that, then I wouldn't be keeping my promise to Gary. Ash rushed into action, not about to let one of the Pokémon under his arm to be unnecessarily hurt or injured.

"Bre-ON!" Five shadow balls came out of nowhere in an impressive display of power, all heading straight to the Lampent that Umbreon somehow knew had killed Gary.

"Lampent, dodge NOW!" Trip cried but was still not fast enough. Every single one hit one after another, causing everyone to wince at the sound of the spheres thudding into the lamp Pokémon's skin, pushing it backward with every strike. After the last impact, the Lampent crashed to the ground; no longer able to stay conscious after such a brutal attack.

With a silent unspoken agreement, Ash's former friends released their Pokémon to combat the two seething Pokémon barely under Ash's control.

"Get that Umbreon!" Trip, being the one who had orchestrated this whole fiasco, was the first to snap out of the haze of shock and start getting everyone to do something. Before Ash could aid the black Pokémon, everyone else shouted out their commands almost simultaneously.

"Croagunk, Poison sting on that Umbreon!" Brock and his ever faithful poison frog started off the brutal opposition against the poor Eeveelution.

"Go Starmie! Watergun that dog!"

"Glaceon! Let's make that Umbreon fear the cold, Ice Beam!"

"Pikachu, assist," but it was too late to prevent Umbreon from taking the full brunt of all of those attacks, causing a moderate explosion to replace the black Pokémon's figure. It eventually died down with a loud "BANG" and what and Umbreon, or what was left, caused everyone to cover their eyes.

To say that this Pokémon had been disemboweled was an understatement. A leg here, a kidney over there. Nearly the entire midsection of the Pokémon was gone, and yet the Umbreon was still stubbornly standing proudly on three legs. It knew that it was going to die, but was satisfied that it managed to do some damage to her trainers murder. Just to make sure that it could get as much damage as it could possibly could within the short time she had to live. She used the rest of her energy to throw as many shadow balls as it could, an amount of 7, towards Trip before collapsing into the ever growing pool of crimson under its feet.

Trip, knowing what was coming, flattened himself to the ground and six of them missed, but the last and weakest of them all collided straight into his jaw. It was not enough to kill him, it was only able to knock him out and give him an unsightly black mark that would most likely never fade.

For the umpteenth time of this day, Ash felt like he was worthless. His friend had just been killed, and then he had went and gotten the Pokémon he entrusted Ash with killed too. He died a little when the light went out of Gary's eyes, but he felt like his spine was ripped out when his Pokémon had died too. With nothing to support his life, Ash went spiraling down into the dark pit known as depression and self-loathing.

"OH YOU'RE GOING TO PAY, PIKACHU- FUSION BOLT!"

''Fusion Bolt?" They all queried. The aforementioned Pokémon started sparking with blue electricity, jumping across his fur like fleas. The fleas grew bigger and eventually all joined each other in one large bright blue orb that surrounded Pikachu. Then, without warning, he charged towards the nearest target.

"Glaceon, NO!" It was essentially like a super-powered volt tackle, and it fainted May's Glaceon in one strike. Pikachu showed no obvious fatigue from using such a powerful attack. At that moment, a Staraptor flew over Professor Oak's lab to see what all the commotion was coming from.

What it saw was not exactly the most pleasant scene. Ash was at the forefront of all the chaos, with blood dripping from his right hand from where he had touched Gary, and the slightly maniacal look in his eyes made Ash look like a psychopath that had just killed Gary, ripped apart his Umbreon, and was now headed towards his next victims having already taken two out.

The Staraptor got the wrong impression from the scene and went back to the lab to get aid.

"That'll teach 'em! Use Bolt Strike!" The same blue electricity started jumping across the Pikachu's coat, but this time it did not for a protective shield around the Pokémon. Instead, it gathered around the tip of its tail, forming what looked to be a crooked mace. He leaped into the air, spinning slowly as time decided it was going to be lazy today. On the fifth revolution, the orb at the end of his tail got larger and the spin quickened, so much that the ball of energy couldn't hold on anymore and was flung straight into the ground next to the traitors.

No sound could be heard from the explosion. It just looked as if smoke spontaneously was spit out of the ground, like a blooming flower that had suddenly been torched. A chorus of hacking and coughing issued from anyone inside of the smoke, for no one could see or breathe in the haze.

"Beautifly- Agh! Clear this smoke away!" There was a light popping sound and a flash of light echoed within the gray cloud-like substance. Soon after, there was a rush of wind and the smoke cleared away, albeit sluggishly. When it cleared, it was a sight to behold. All of the Pokémon that were previously out, except Pikachu, were knocked out cold.

"WHAT!" The traitorous group almost screamed. Ash knocking out all of their Pokémon was as unfathomable as eating Misty's cooking. It was simply, not possible. And that powerful of an attack should've knocked out the Pokémon who used it in the first place. But said mouse had no such ailments, other than a bit of ketchup on his foot…

"Now Pikachu!" Ash could not complete his command for multiple hyper beams came out of nowhere, too many to count, and they all reached their target. The poor little electric mouse defending his trainer.

"PIKACHU." The scream burst unbidden from Ash's throat. He had to survive, nothing could kill that mouse. NOTHING. He didn't know what he would do if his best friend were to die. He might become suicidal, even if the thought ending his own life disgusted him.

As the small amount of colorful smoke started clearing away, Ash felt himself running. When he reached the mouse, he could only state in horror at what he considers his best friend.

"...No..." He murmured, almost unmoving as the full force of his losses dawned upon him. As he looked at the Pokémon, nothing wrong could be seen with his lower body but a few burn marks. When his gaze reached the upper body is where the trauma started to show. The burn marks grew bigger and you could see inside of the Pokémon's chest cavity, some areas you could see the grass under.

The Pikachu reached one small paw and weakly grasped Ash's right index finger, as if to say everything would be okay. With a sad smile upon his face, the Pokémon let go of everything.

Pikachu felt his life slowly slip away from him. As the darkness closed around him, memories of his whole life flashed before his mind's eye. A few of his most treasured memories had the sharpest focus and he could see what happened clearly. His first encounter with Ash, traveling with him, saving the legendaries with him, adventuring with him. Him. Him. Him. How could someone even think about betraying that sweet child? Those memories were the brightest, for they were the most recent. Almost laughing in the face of all this… Abuse. He was happy that he could defend his trainer from harm, and hoped that sometime when Ash could visit the spirit realm. His trainer might give him a high five… And with those thoughts, Pikachu released his final shuddering breaths.

When the light flickers out in the Mouse Pokémon's eyes, Ash started to shake uncontrollably in his fitful rage. He set his best and last friend on the ground and closed his eyes in a last farewell. After he was done with his short time mourning, he whipped around to take his vengeance upon whoever had ordered the attack. He had never thought about the prospect of torture, but now, he would gladly do it to these brainless imbeciles.

Every. Single. Damn. One of his Pokémon that were residing in Oaks lab were standing directly behind him, and they were taking no prisoners.

"Even your Pokémon know that you're pathetic and a waste of space!" Misty mocked.

Oak came running out of the lab at the worst time he possibly could. He managed to only just stand next to all the Pokémon upon their small hill, with his mouth agape. The aforementioned Pokémon wasted no time in trying to get rid of Ash before he could harm anyone else. Every long range attack sitting in their arsenal sped towards the "murderer" and seemed to rip him apart, but when the smoke cleared.

Ash, what Ash?

There was no smear, just a large star like blast mark to prove that anything had happened in that spot. Everyone assumed that the blast would've been powerful enough to level a city, it disintegrating the young Pokémon trainer was the most likely possibility.

"Oak…"

"Yes, Trip?" The arrogant and boastful trainer had finally woken up from his forced slumber and was now glaring daggers that Oak could almost feel pierce his skin.

"You're going to tell the police aren't you?" Oak raised one eyebrow at this statement.

"I'm required by law to do so." Trip snorted and pointed one threating finger towards the Professors lab.

"If you even try to, we'll burn your laboratory to the ground," Oak's eyes widened almost comically, Trip just snorted again, "Actually, we'll just kill you right here and now. Because I don't- Hey! Where'd he go?" Oak was gone. Only a dropped coin to signify that the wizened professor had even existed at one moment in time. Trip bent down to pick up the shiny bronze coin after walking over near it. After thoroughly inspecting it, he decided that it bore no secrets that the human eye could discern, and moved on.

"Burn the lab anyway, it's too much evidence."

* * *

**This recalled me back on some quotes I know: ** **death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him, that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupieth it.**

**Author: That ... can be scary if you thought about that.**

**Pigeoncracker: I know, right?**

**Mew: Why are the camera is still running? Turn it off!**

**Author: Wait! We're not done ye-**


	2. Chapter 1: The Second Beginning

**Hello! Pigeoncracker here!** **Sorry for taking such a long time with this Chapter, I was preoccupied with things like my family getting in car crashes - No one was hurt. Our car was totaled though - and other things. All updates should take about two weeks for me to finish. I am trying to go for quality over quantity! If you spot any repeating mistakes that I seem to be making, please point it out. Constructive criticism is needed as I want to release better chapters for everyone. Also, are short fast chapters better? Or longer ones that take, well, longer... **

**Author: BOO!**

**Pigeoncracker: AAH! What the heck, Author?!**

**Author: Hehehe ... Straight to the AN eh? Well then. *Clearing my throat* Hello World! Welcome to another chapter of 'Pokemon: The Final Judgment'!**

**Pigeoncracker: It was formerly named "Heaven's Judgment" since you thought that name is a bit cliche ...**

**Author: Well ...**

**Mew: Oh, hello Pigeoncracker. I didn't see you there.**

**Pigeoncracker: Hey Mew! Sup? *High-Five with Mew***

**Mew: I'm good. So the next chapter is coming up, huh? Well then, It's Review Time!**

**Author: ... So?**

**Mew: hold on a second. LATIOS! LUCARIO! ABSOL! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE! OR ELSE I'M GOING TO CUT YOUR MANHOOD WITH PSYCHO CUT ATTACK!**

**Author: *Wince* Outch ...**

**Pigeoncracker: *Wince* Now I seeing things ...**

**Latios&amp;Lucario&amp;Absol: SIR YES SIR!**

**Mew: Call me Sir again and I'll cut you maggots' manhood into half!**

**Latios&amp;Lucario: *Gulp* MISS YES MISS!**

**Absol: But I'm a female, I don't have a Manhood.**

**Mew: Then I'll shave your bloody fur so these perverts here *Mew pointed to Latios&amp;Lucario* can see YOUR body posture, and I'll drink your breast milk till you start screaming and moaning for rape!**

**Absol: *Gulp* S- Sorry.**

**Mew: What are you doing, maggots?! Start the Review Section!**

**Latios&amp;Lucario&amp;Absol: MISS YES MISS!**

**Pigeoncracker: *Sweatdrop* Is it always like this?**

**Author: No ... Sorry for this, but Mew is in her period right now. She had once tried to rape me ...**

**Pigeoncracker: What?!**

**Author: Nevermind, just some memories.**

**Pigeoncracker: Well, like what old saying** **"Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn ..."**

**Author: "... The female of the species is more deadly than the male."**

**Pigeoncracker: I agree *High-Five Author***

**Lucario: Alright! The first review is from some random Guest. He or She said: "****Good start. I wish you luck on this re-write, I look forward to seeing what you do.**

**Now there are some things I would like to suggest, so I thank you in advance for reading. Keep in mind these are only suggestions, weither or not you use them is all up to you.**

**1st, if you do a Harem route like most Ash Betrayed stories do, try adding unique characters that are rarely or never used. Like Ursula, Zinnia, Sabrina, Whitney etc etc.**

**2nd. Have Ash use Manaphy against May. No Ash betrayed story is complete, in my opinion, without Ash completely destroying May with the Pokemon she had a huge bond with.**

**3rd. Have Ash's Pokemon be revealed the truth of what happened and let them rejoin Ash. Keep in mind that Staraptor didn't see the whole thing go down, so why should Ash go after them when it was really the grand daddy of misunderstandings.**

**4th. Maybe give one or 2 traitors redemption. Hell, Dawn defended Ash right from the get-go, not only that, Alchohol can make people act and think things that people would never think or do. so maybe give her enormous regret, depression, guilt, shame and maybe, MAYBE, a shot at being in the Harem if you decide to go there. Heck maybe give Max forgiveness, I didn't see that you included Max in the attack, so maybe he stayed behind because he realized that they were going to far and didn't want to have any part of what the others were saying and what they tried to do.**

**5\. More detail on the traitors punishment. I mean show us the punishment's going on, from start to end. I always felt that the ending would've been amazing if you went into more detail, maybe POV on the traitors and there thoughts and feelings about there rep, family and lives just getting steamrolled. Especially Trip, he started this, he should get the worst of it.**

**Finally, don't have Ash change his name. I feel like it would be more satisfying if the traitors knew that Ash was alive and was coming for them big time.**

**I really don't like the whole Ash changing his name thing in general (personal opinion). If Ash is going for revenge, then it should be Ash getting his revenge, not Satoshi, Red, Ashura or any other name that people come up with. But again, that's just my personal opinion.**

**I hope my suggestions helped you out. The original story was great, so I look forward to seeing how you update it. Good Luck and update soon."**

**Mew: Hmm ... Thank you for sending your Suggestion Review! We really appreciate your suggestion here, seeing we just took some of the ideas ...**

**Latios: We can't tell you which one we agreed with. No spoilers allowed here ^.^**

**Absol: ... Next.**

**Lucario: This next one is from 'Shadow'Blaze 14" He said: "****Ok, so NONE of Ash's pokemon stood by him? Or will all of Ash's Pokemon NOT at Oak's lab stand by him, like Charizard, Pidgeot, Butterfree, Lapras, Larvatar, Gliscor, you get the picture. Also, this betrayal was a bit dark."**

**Pigeoncracker: It's dark, alright? *Sadistic grin***

**Author: Yep, dark as a nightmare. *Sadistic grin***

**Latios: *shudder* Anyway, this Chapter will answer your questions. Next.**

**Lucario: ... Nope, I think that's all reviews that caught my eyes.**

**Author: Well then, for all reviews, thank you for giving us Supportive Reviews to us!**

**Pigeoncracker: Thank you for supporting us and giving us suggestion for the story.**

**Mew: If you like this story, remember to Favorite this story so you can share it with the others too!**

**Author: To keep a track with this story, remember to smash that Follow button!**

**Pigeoncracker: Also, don't forget to leave a Review below ... No Flame Review please! We're out of water right now, so we can't have a Flame burning our story here :P.**

**Author: Heh ...**

**Mew: *Glaring to Latios&amp;Lucario&amp;Absol* What are you waiting for, maggots?! Get the bloody Story uploaded and get that bloody Film started!**

**Latios&amp;Lucario&amp;Absol: Aye, Aye, Captain!  
**

**Mew: Call me captain again then I'll definitely cut your Manhood off! *Charges Psycho Cut***

**Latios&amp;Lucario&amp;Absol: Yikes! MISS YES MISS!  
**

**Mew: Good, now get going!**

**Pigeoncracker: I wonder how you can live with these Pokemon around for years.**

**Author: *Sigh* You have no idea ...**

* * *

**Chapter Info: Chapter 1  
**

**Rating: T**

**Words Count: 8680 Words (Current Chapter)**

**Date/Time Posted: 12:33 - 5/5/2015  
**

**Writer: Aurorabeam**

**Co- Writer: Pigeoncracker**

**Beta-Read: (None)**

**Proofread: (None)**

**Other Notes:**

"Hello" **-** **Normal Speech  
"Hello" - Pokemon Speech  
_"Hello"_ \- Technology Speaking/Announcement(Intercom)/Extremely Loud Speech  
**"_Hello_" **\- Telepathy  
**"_Hello_" **\- Private Telepathy  
**'_Hello_'** \- Thought  
**

**Warnings: Minor Physiological Theme. 13+ (T) Violence Scene. Not for kids! I bet you'll get nightmares. Rewrite of 'Return in Vengeance'. More Warning will be added soon.  
**

**Last Chapter Stat (Chapter 0)(5/5/2015):  
Views: 908  
Favorites: 55  
Followers: 45  
Reviews: 10  
Communities: 0  
**

**|We are proud to represent our story. We hope you have pleasant experience reading with us|**

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Second Beginning  
**

* * *

Pain.

Ash was vaguely aware that he was somewhere drastically different than the lab, but all he could focus on was there was something very, very wrong with his left arm. For there was nothing to feel in the spot the aforementioned appendage should be. Just… Pain.

"Mew?" A high pitched sound echoed from right above him.

'_That was not the sound I'm supposed to make. Then what was that…?_' Something in Ash's mind finally clicked after floundering around to find where the puzzle pieces went. Legendary, Mew, Pokémon all finally came together with a definitive snap in his mind.

"Mew! How, why are you- ARGH!" When Ash tried to get into a kneeling position to properly view the legendary, he found that he had nothing to support his left side. With no possible way to keep himself steady, he collapsed into the steadily growing pool of- his blood?

Ash's eyes shot open wide in realization, and all he could see was a wide expanse of pink with two massive blue eyes plopped near the top.

"Mew?" The Pokémon questioned. What she was asking, Ash had no inkling of an idea.

"Agh!" Flipping himself onto his side was a lot more painful then he thought it would be. Looking down, he could only stare in horrification. His left arm from the elbow down was burnt to a crisp with only a few bright pink splotches where the skin was not damaged as much as the surrounding. Most of the wound had been cauterized by the heat of the blast that hit him, but the skin that hadn't was bleeding profusely. And it hurt- BAD.

Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as bad as Ash thought. Maybe because all of the nerves had been burned away, but it was best to not think of that right now. He had to clench the bleeding, somehow… Hadn't those first aid commercials done something with, making wraps with someone's shirt?

Without another thought, Ash rolled onto his back and painfully brought his ruined forearm onto his chest with his right and proceeded to tear off his shirt; eventually getting it into a crude sling and wraps.

"Mew, I don't think I can get up by myself. Could you- Could you help me get onto my feet?" Ash could not see what the usually playful legendary had gone off to do, but apparently she still had heard him. He could feel a powerful pink aura surround him and lift him onto his feet, keeping him steady for a few more moments to make sure that he could stand up straight.

He could, but he was not the most stable object in the vicinity. The blood loss had already taken its toll upon Ash's body and his coordination was almost as bad as if he had just downed a couple more pints than he probably should have. One thing kept nagging his mind once he had roughly straightened himself out, Mew never came to him unless he had to save the world again, or something to do with Arceus. The melancholy look on the pink Pokémon's face scared him slightly.

"Mew?" The Pokémon whipped around at the sound of his voice, not bothering to conceal its anxiety or her unusual, overwrought behavior. "Why'd you bring me here? Is someone in trouble?"

"_Yes! Very big trouble- Arceus- Bad man- Chains- Restraints- Bad, bad, bad, BAD!"_ The distressed Pokémon took off towards a large cave built into the rock wall nearby, but frankly, it was still a bit fuzzy. Obviously hinting for Ash to follow her to whatever was in the structure.

"I just got nearly killed by who I considered my best friends and I lost some good friends too, can't I just have a break!" Ash sighed. He knew that yelling at no one would achieve zilch, but he just couldn't help but feel… Used.

Unbeknownst to Ash, leaving him alone in the world had done a lot more than just physical and emotional damage. Already, the cracks in the young boy's mind could be seen by the most perceptive. Going through that much trauma in less than an hour was not good in any way. Planting seeds of doubt into his mind, making him more wary and less naïve; untrusting and more reclusive from society.

Sighing again, he figured that he might as well go find out what was wrong with Arceus this time and started plodding off, following the long, beckoning pink tail of the legendary just ahead of him.

As he got closer to the aforementioned rock feature, even Ash could tell why all Pokémon had fled from the area. There was an innate sense of wrongness that permeated the air near the cave, and it got stronger with every step. Like the haze of a flair, the red smoke warning you that this was not the right place to be at this time, yet someone needed help.

Mew was affected by the instinct more than Ash as it seemed to be more Pokémon based. She would keep darting back and forth between heading to the building that was looking more and more like it had just been drilled there every second, and the exact opposite way. As if she was indecisive about leading the young trainer here. The guilty look on her face verified this claim.

At about a mile away, the ground could be seen shaking slightly from the roars of a large beast. It almost sounded like that time where Ash had to go back in time to save Arceus's jewel and the legend had been livid about getting one of its life plates filched. It couldn't be though, she never went down to the planet except for under the most extreme circumstances. As far as Ash had known, there hasn't been any world-shaking problems lately, right?

"Mew!" Ash caught up to the distressed cat Pokémon and lightly tugged on her tail to grab her attention. The Pokémon whipped around in response, almost launching a light pink ball of psychic energy at whoever had grabbed her, but quickly extinguished the ball when she identified the offender. Definitely more jumpy than usual…

"_What?"_ When the terrified Pokémon turned her gaze on Ash, he couldn't help but squirm a little. The intensity of her eyes seemed to bore into his skin, burning trails of fire whenever she looked nervously to the side and other directions. Ash decided to be blunt though it was maybe not the best situation for it.

"Is Arceus in there?" He said, gesturing towards the ever growing formation with his nondamaged arm, "Is that why you brought me here?" The Mew seemed to visibly sigh and eventually break under Ash's questioning glare.

"_Yes,"_ Confirming Ash's worst fears, the Pokémon finally caved. _"Someone has managed to draw her to a certain spot and somehow captured her with similar technology used against MewTwo. She's the one roaring over there." _Mew's wild gesticulations seemed to be centered toward the hollow that they were nearing. _"I needed a humans help to get Arceus out of her confinement and you were the best option."_ She glanced sideways at Ash with a forlorn look. _"MewTwo and I went to go fetch you, we came at the right time apparently."_

Ash couldn't help but let his jaw fall. The only reason he was alive currently was because someone had been sent to get him to help with an even bigger problem. Then something else dawned upon him, MewTwo had come too. So, where had he been?

"_MewTwo got Oak out of there while I got you right before the blast shredded you_." Ash glanced at his makeshift sling, remember just how close before had been. Without noticing really where he was going, for he had been in deep thought about the past events, Ash almost tripped into the cave. At closer inspection, it turned out not to be some geological formation out in the middle of nowhere. Deep in the recess, there could be seen a door of some sort.

Without any visible hesitation, Mew flew over to the door and looked back at Ash with her massive, blue eyes. As if to say "You coming?"

Ash sighed but trudged over all the same. "What's this?" he asked after a thorough inspection of the door. It appeared to be nothing special, except for the fact that there was no visible handle. It was just a big- make that titanic, solid oak door that looked like it was made out of steel. It was nearly twice as high as Ash and it dwarfed Mew!

"_It's the entrance to the keeping place of Arceus. I have knocked out the people watching the entrance, but the rest you must do by yourself, for the restraining aura projected around this area is already hindering my ability to fly._" For the first time since he got here, Ash notice that what Mew had said was true. The long pink tail of hers was collecting dirt and her height had dropped from eye level to stomach.

"But what about the door?" It was a rather simple thing to overlook, but Ash had was sure it wouldn't just swing open upon his touch.

Mew's eyes widened and she blushed in embarrassment… I think- it's really hard to tell. She just turned a darker shade of pink at the cheeks. With a light clicking sound, the door swung open in an inviting manner, like it was trying to get as many victims in as possible before it closed its gaping maw to drag the few unlucky asunder.

The roars died down. This meant that either Arceus had gotten free or had been knocked unconscious. Both were not exactly the best things that could happen.

Walking into the room that seemed to be a joint to the main area, Ash's common sense immediately decided that this was a bad idea and wanted OUT. Ignoring the small concerned voice for the time being, he moved onwards into the hole.

On second thought, walking straight into there as if he had gotten a party invite would be a bad idea. When he turned around to face the entrance, he noticed that it was not a rock wall at all. It was just a massive canvas that somehow fooled him when he was standing right next to it. Looking at the reverse side, the wall looked two dimensional, the flaws of the façade showing through prominently. It was only being held up by a bit of scaffolding leading to a roof area that seemed to contain the ventilation part of the facility and a small workspace for people to get up there.

Bingo

Now to figure out how to get up there. The scaffolding swayed under Ash's touch, but miraculously stayed steady when he put his full weight onto the structure. As he was scaling the slim steel beams, occasionally they would make loud cracking sounds, causing Ash to move faster in fear that someone would find him. To his immense relief, no one came down the tunnel.

The crawl space was just that- a crawl space. Ash had to move the rest of the way into the interior on his hands and knees, at some parts he had to crawl along on his stomach. Most of the maintenance area was made out of a soft wood that was pleasant to the touch, at some areas though, a thin sheet of tin was all that covered him from view.

There were only a few area's that you could see down into the area below, and as he grew nearer to where he thought the roars were coming from, the 'prison' started looking worse and worse.

Through the few glimpses that he managed to sneak, most of the facility was made out of thick layers of concrete, the doors and dead ends made out of some sort of shiny metal, and security was crawling all over. When passing a very unusual grate, one made out of the same shiny metal as the doors, he spotted his target.

Arceus was virtually comatose inside of a large cell, not having the strength to move or even make a sound. Several long arms surrounded the cage, about half equipped with bloody instruments of torture and varying degrees of sharpness. As he watched, the chains keeping the legend in her position sparked once, almost knocking her unconscious.

Before Arceus could react, three arms; one with a large syringe, one with what looked to be a massive scalpel, and the other was a grabber of some sort. Swooping in, the scalpel cut a large chunk of flesh off of her hide and the grabber quickly jerked in to snatch it before it could get lost. The syringe stabbed into her rump and drew a large amount of golden-tinged blood, a similar color to all of the things around the poor legend.

Ash's eyes widened to almost unrealistic proportions as he watched the events unfolding and he nearly threw up. He had never seen this much blood in one place, neither did he think that something could produce that much blood. All items gained from the God Pokémon were placed down somewhere outside of Ash's limited vision at this moment.

'_I have to save her… Somehow.'_ Ash knew that it would probably be futile, but he couldn't just stand there and do nothing. _'Maybe some of the Pokémon that I have could help,'_ His gaze turned to the guards nearest, _'but there's too many to fight off. I don't want to risk injuring them…'_ Sighing, he decided to just continue on and when an opportunity presents itself, he'll take it.

(Line Break)

Mars was a very competent man for the job his boss provided for him.

Capture Arceus? Done. Make a serum that would give anyone the power to control the world? In the process of fulfillment.

It was so easy to contain the legend once they found out how to reach her. All they needed was the Azure Flute and the God Pokémon practically walked into his arms.

"Bring the blood over here," Mars gestured to one of the doctor's. They quickly complied and the blood from their captured victim was brought into his hands.

The blood of an Arceus was very interesting, something any scientist would pay millions just to get his/her hands on a single droplet. The blood itself, not on the molecular level for Mars did not concern himself with details only lab nerds would strive for, was almost exactly the same shade of red as a humans. The only real difference being the flecks of gold strewn about and the almost microscopic, but still able to be seen by the mundane eye, chunks of white floating around.

Now for what I really came for, Mars thought to himself. He served, slaved, and practically worshiped Giovanni and he would never disappoint his master. With large clicking sounds that could be heard by all near, the Rocket Elite sauntered over to his desk and flipped open an aged book.

"Where is it, where is it," He muttered to himself, "Aha! This will do the trick." The book in question that he was flipping though was an ancient potion brewer's tome. Full of hidden secrets and deadly recipes, and the one thing that team rocket happened to be looking for.

The exact requirements for the elixir were a well-kept secret and only three people knew of it; Giovanni, Mars, and a singular scientist.

"Daphnia! Get over here immediately!" Mars roared into the depths of the lab. Several Rocket scientists snickered at the name of the female biologist but were quickly silenced by the piercing glare of Mars.

The hurried footsteps of someone with high heels quickly approached the slightly raised platform that Mars was located on. The woman had long, dark blonde hair that seemed to shine a plethora of colors and walked with an attitude that says "I'm better than you" Her shape had no obvious flaws and she was of average height for a woman.

The two exchanged no words, Mars gave Daphnia the golden tube of Arceus's blood and the hair samples the recovered from the patch they ripped off. The ripping of flesh was just extra, they could've done it painlessly, but what would the fun be in that?

After watching the woman quickly walk off to make the desired serum, he turned his gaze back onto the ruined Arceus.

"Such a beautiful creature, aren't you?" He stroked a lone hand across the glass between them. A singular red eye chinked open, causing the many scientists and guards near to jump and subconsciously back away from the Arceus, but not Mars. Her breathing was labored and her eyes were glazed over slightly. Mars suddenly wanted to rip them out, but he would restrain himself for the moment.

"I don't know why I am saying this, but I am sorry for you, yet not my actions…" He mused to himself. Giovanni had said that Daphnia was one of his fastest scientists. "Let's see how fast she really is- Oh! Speak of the devil…"

The aforementioned scientist walked into the room holding a syringe that was slightly larger than the normal medical one and several others were in a small bag strapped to her belt. The viscous liquid contained in the medical device was a dark golden color. No red impurities could be seen by anyone glancing at the glass syringe, nor any more white things floating around.

An evil gleam reached Mars' eyes as the medical syringe came to rest in his outstretched hand. He finally could impress Giovanni! Wouldn't that just make the day for everyone! In fact, he better tell him right away. Grabbing a small transmitter from his coat pocket, Mars dialed the required number.

"_**Who's calling me at this early hour?! TELL ME or I shall have your head!"**_ Mars winced as the loud voice of his superior blared into his ear. Glancing at the nearest clock, he deducted that it seemed to be two in the morning. _'Shit…'_

"Umm, I'm incredibly sorry about the time sir, I got a little ahead of myself. This is Mars calling, I have procured your serum."

"_**Excellent!"**_ All traces of lethargy seemed to be forgotten, judging by the increased excitement lacing his every word. _**"Now we just need to test this substance. I can't have myself injecting volatile substances into my person without making sure I won't die from it. I suggest you take one of the many scientists in the lab and inject them with it, then kill them once you make sure nothing has happened. I trust you will get this done in a similar haste to your last assignment?"**_

"Yes boss, I will start working right away!"

"_**Good- good,"**_ the communicator in Mars's hand made a loud clicking sound, suggesting that the person on the other end has just dropped the call.

Mars chuckled darkly. Human testing before animal, exactly how he liked it. Now we'll just have to find a subject, won't we? Mars surveyed the current room for someone that seemed to not be as busy as the others. After a full two sweeps, his eyes caught onto a scientist that was on the computer, playing space invaders. Glaring at the name tag for a little gave him the procrastinator's name.

"Gerald! Need you for a sec, get your lazy ass over here." The man Mars was shouting out visibly jumped and almost tripped over one of his chair's legs. He started shaking profusely, yet still complied with the orders given and didn't try to run. He knew that playing that game was against code and now he was going to be disciplined for it.

Mars stepped over to the large holding tank and leaned against it, beckoning the scientist over. When he reached his position, he grabbed the scientists arm and moved his right ear near his mouth.

"Now I am being completely serious, do you have any qualms with being injected with a foreign substance for testing purposes?" Mars whispered into his ear. Gerald's face went from intrigued to horrified in a few seconds, showing his displeasure at what he thought his boss was going to do.

"Yes! I could die from whatever you and that woman made, I'm not taking that chance!" Gerald was just a little too exuberant in his display of refusal and some of the white coats near started giving him odd looks. The smile on Mars's face grew even larger with sadistic pleasure.

"Well, I guess I have to resort to more… extreme measures." Mars grabbed the scientist and brutally shoved one of the needles into his carotid artery, drawing a strangled gasp as he shoved the plunger to the bottom of its well. Then he picked the entire scientist off of the ground with one hand around his neck, quickly opened the blast proof door to Arceus's prison and threw Gerald in. He landed into a crumpled heap to the right of the comatose legend.

"Someone monitor his vitals," Mars shouted absentmindedly into the lab. The last vial was for boss and boss only. If they really had to, they could always make more. It would just involve another very generous donation from Arceus for she was staying right here for a while.

(Line Break)

Ash looked at the scene in horror but knew that this could be his best chance to get Arceus free and maybe rid the Rockets of their precious serum. Everything about this place was just wrong. A sense of foreboding permeated the air as if even it knew that something bad was going to happen.

Ash crawled out of the duct that was nearest to ground level and quickly threw himself behind a large crate. Looking as if no one had noticed his movement, he relaxed a little but did not entirely lower his guard. Peering around the crate, he noticed the scientists break into a furious rush, like ants that had noticed that a spider had drawn just a little closer than they wanted.

Shouting broke out and all of it seemed to be directed toward the man that Mars had thrown inside of the tank. When Ash moved a couple of crates to get a closer look, he wished he hadn't. The man's midsection seemed to be bloating up as if something was growing very rapidly inside of him, various other body parts had also swelled and were started to turn white in certain parts, golden even at certain areas.

Gerald, as Mars had called him, let out a primal scream that could be heard even through the enclosed area he was contained in. And what happen soon after made Ash glad there was a glass wall in-between them, but it still had to be glass. To put it simply-

He exploded

Ash retched and slapped a hand over his eyes, turning away from the small explosion. Now that was a site that would leave scars upon Ash's mind, it was a side of the world he had never been exposed too often. And it terrified him, causing him to second guess his actions.

'_Am I really going to do this? Try to stop psychopaths that just killed a fellow human without remorse?'_ But then he looked back toward Arceus and she cracked open a singular eye and stared pitifully at Ash. That one look just broke his heart and he knew that he would sacrifice his own life just to make sure the legend made it to freedom.

"Mars, I challenge you to a Pokémon battle!" Ash didn't know what caused him to stand up and announce it to everyone, but maybe, just maybe it would work. Mars whipped around and stared at him for a few seconds as if he were a pesky bug that somehow kept getting into his house. After a few moments, he let out a booming chuckle.

"Do you really think that I would let Arceus go if I lost a simple Pokémon battle?" Ash gulped, realizing the fatal flaw in his plan while the Rocket Elite continued laughing. "What would I get if you lost?" Mars smirked again.

"Umm…" Ash stuttered, "You can do whatever you want with me!" He yelled out suddenly, then realizing what he said, clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Anything?" Mars trailed off. Ash looked around at all the people staring wide-eyed at him, some were even breaking down into hysterics. If he lost, he would be captured anyway, so he nodded to the question.

"Well then, I suppose I should have some fun here" Mars spoke gleefully. He pulled out a Poke-Ball from his belt and released his Pokémon, "Primape, let's teach this boy a lesson!"

Ash pulled out his own Poke-Ball, "There's no way I'm going to let you do this!" He shouted, "Bulbasaur, let's do this!"

"A Bulbasaur? You want to stop me with a Bulbasaur?" Mars asked as he laughed hysterically, "This is so funny! I'm going to take much pleasure defeating you!" Abruptly, a voice echoed from a railing high above.

"Be careful Mars. That's Ash Ketchum over there" Both whipped around and saw the Team Rocket Boss: Giovanni. Ash could only stare while, Mars just sat there catching flies.

"B-b-b-boss?!" Mars stuttered, "You came?"

"I simply wanted to watch your progress personally" Giovanni stated. Then, his gaze zeroed on the yellow vial in Mars's hand, "And I suppose the experiment succeed, yes?"

"Y-Yes sir!" Mars shuttered, "But the test is-"

"Tell me another time, Mars" Giovanni darkly remarked, "You, are facing Ash Ketchum, the biggest prick in Team Rocket's side. He has ruined one too many plans of mine..." Giovanni pointed out. Everyone around the room gasped in shock.

"H-He did?!" Many people, including Mars gasped.

"Yes," Giovanni nodded, "And now, Mars, show me your loyalty. Defeat Ash Ketchum, then bring him to me."

"Yes, sir!" Mars shouted gleefully. He turned his gaze to Ash and his Pokémon, then said, "I'm going to defeat you, for Master's sake! Primape, use Night Slash!" Primape charged itself toward the Bulbasaur.

However, Ash responded quickly. "Bulbasaur, use Vine Whip! Throw off its balance!" Bulbasaur sprouted two vines from his body, then send then shooting towards Primape. Primape tried to knock the vines with the Night Slash, but the vine caught its feet and pulled it upside down.

"What the?!" Mars said in shock. While the rocket elite was staring at the fallen Primape, Ash decided not to wait for him to start paying attention.

"Now, throw it up and use Solar Beam!" Bulbasaur threw his victim up to the air as his bulb begin to glow green with power. Then, an orb appeared on the tip of his bulb as he shot the extremely powerful beam towards a panicking Primape. Mars panicked.

"Primape, counter it with Hyper Beam!" He shouted. However, before Primape could launch the attack, the powerful Solar Beam had already hit Primape, sending it soaring meters back to its owner.

Seeing this, Mars freaked even more. "Impossible! How are you, a mere child doing this?" Mars was about to recall his Pokémon, but a strange black undertone in Ash's eyes appeared, throwing Mars off-guard. What Ash said shocked everyone, but only mildly amused Giovanni.

"Bulbasaur, kill it with Razor Leaf!" Bulbasaur visibly hesitated. He looked to Ash and saw how much pain was hidden in his eyes and the dark aura that had overcome them, making the Bulbasaur fear for his trainer's sanity. Ever faithful to his last breath, Bulbasaur complied. He sent thousands of razor sharp leaves toward Primape, each and every one thudding into its body, pushing it back slightly with every strike.

Many grunts around them watched in horror as the leaves sliced large incisions and puncture wounds into its body. Then, one of the bigger leaves entered its forehead with a loud "CRACK!" instantly killing it without too much blood. However, it doesn't finish there. Several other leaves continued to mutilate its body, slicing off all but one limb.

When it ended, Primape was lying in a pool of its own blood, limp and deceased. Many grunts that had witnessed this looked shocked. Sure they're evil, but never in their life had they killed a Pokémon before. Mars could only stare in shock. One of the first Pokémon that he had gotten and one of his best friends, had just died. Giovanni was the first one to speak up.

"My, my. Aren't you a naughty boy, killing Pokémon is my job." Giovanni chastised. He was obviously not affected by the death, he just looked mildly surprised. The Bulbasaur, however, was started to question Ash's and his own morals.

"Bulba…" Bulbasaur turned and looked directly towards its trainer with a questioning gaze. Ash clenched his fist, knowing exactly what he wanted to know.

"They deserve it, Bulbasaur…" He whispered, "They deserve Death. For a long time, they have schemed and conspired against the world and even plan to destroy it. This is where it will all end, Bulbasaur." He pulled out his Poke-Ball, "Thank you for your help" He smiled serenely to his Bulbasaur, before recalling Bulbasaur back into his Poke-Ball.

He glared angrily at Mars, "Now release her!" He said as he pointed to the caged Arceus. Mars snapped from his shock and turned his gaze onto Ash. If looks could kill, Ash would be dead twice by now.

"No! Just because you killed my Pokémon I'm going to capture you anyway. No Arceus for you!" He stomped his feet in frustration, like a small child. Then, he pulled out another Poke-Ball, "Machamp, go!"

"Bayleef, you're up!" Ash responded as he released his next Pokémon. Mars was the first to issue a command.

"Machamp, use Karate Chop!" Machamp starts charging towards Bayleef, its hands started glowing with a dark red aura. Ash instantly responded to the threat, like any good trainer.

"Bayleef, use Energy Ball!" Bayleef charged a dark green orb on her mouth, then shot it towards Machamp. The ball left small traces of white air where it passed and the orb even had a tail.

"Machamp, dodge it!" Mars shouted. Machamp jumped away from the incoming Energy Ball, then continued to charge towards Bayleef. When it was close, Ash smirked and quickly shouted.

"Now, use Attract!" Bayleef gained her trainer's smile she winked. She sent several heart-shaped constructions towards Machamp and they started circling the poor Pokémon. Mars started to panic again, much to Giovanni's disappointment.

"Machamp, try to dodge!" However, it was proven too late since the hearts had leaped into the Machamp like piranhas. Machamp stopped the attack as it begin stumbling side to side in confusion, its eyes had been replaced by small hearts swirling with lust.

"Machamp, snap out of it!" Mars angrily shouted. However, the Machamp did not comply. Ash let out a predatorial grin, his mind far lost in the battle.

"Bayleef, cut its head off with Leaf Blade!" Bayleef whipped her head to her trainer with an incredulous look, not really sure that she had heard him right. However, with one look into his eyes, Bayleef know that he wasn't yanking her chain.

Bayleef charged towards the confused Machamp as her leaf on her head begin to grow into a full-sized blade. She swung the blade through its neck, severing its head from the body. This time, no one was that surprised though Mars was absolutely livid.

"What the?!" Mars fumed, "If that's how you want to play it, so be it!" He pulled out his next Poke-Ball, "Crobat! You're my last hope!" He released his Pokémon.

"Crobat, use Acrobatics!" Mars shouted. Crobat flew up as it enveloped its self with a light gray aura. Then, it catapulted towards Bayleef with incredible speed.

"Bayleef, counter it with Energy Ball!" Ash ordered. Bayleef charged a green orb on her mouth, then shot it towards Crobat. However, Crobat was too fast and it dodged the incoming Energy Ball without too much trouble, then crashed to Bayleef. Bayleef cried out in pain after receiving the super-effective attack. Ash cried out his Pokémon's name, worried for her safety and checking if she was okay.

"Gotcha! Now, use Air Slash!" Mars shouted in victory. Crobat shot towards the wounded Bayleef with its wings glowing silver. Ash quickly retaliated, not about to let his Pokémon be hurt needlessly.

"Bayleef, use Cut!" Bayleef clenched her teeth. Then, the leaf on her forehead begin to glow a blinding white just as the Crobat slammed into her. They stood at an impasse while each tried to overpower the other. Then, Ash decided that it had gone on long enough. "Now use Energy Ball!" Bayleef charged the familiar green orb on her mouth, then shot it to Crobat in close range. Crobat staggered back after a receiving direct hit, even if it was ineffective it still had force behind it.

"Now Crobat, use Hypnosis!" Mars shouted. Crobat eyes begin to glow as it sent the jamming psychic wave towards Bayleef. However, Ash knew that this was probably going to be his next move and had taken steps to prevent it.

"Bayleef, use Protect!" Bayleef quickly summoned a light green barrier dissipating the psychic wave as it crashed into the shield. "Now use Grass Whistle!" Bayleef closed her eyes as she lowered her leaf to her mouth. Then, she whistled a lullaby that caused most Pokémon and people around the place to crash to the ground in a slumber, except Ash for Bayleef didn't want to harm him, Giovanni and Mars. They managed to cover their ears before the attack commenced.

After it ended, Crobat was still asleep as he was flying through the air not paying attention to anything that happened around it. Before anyone could wake the comatose Pokémon, Ash shouted, "Now use Solar Beam!" Bayleef charged a light yellowish-green orb on her mouth, then shot the extremely powerful beam towards Crobat. It hit Crobat dead center, sending it flying towards Arceus's cage.

With a loud crash and an ear-piercing screech, the Crobat slammed into the walls of Arceus's cage, carrying enough force to completely shatter the containment's walls. Arceus made no move to acknowledge this fact for she was still too weak to move in any direction.

Ash glared triumphantly at the Rocket leaders. "I guess you didn't have to open the cage for me." This pissed off both of them and that was a bad idea upon a bad idea.

"Why you little, BASTARD!" Mars blew his top, marching over to Ash and grabbing him by the throat. Ash struggled and tried to kick Mars, but the Rocket elite just lifted him up into the air. Off of the ground! "I'm going to make you pay, demon!"

"Bayleef- help," Ash choked out, but then he spotted her on the ground with a sleeper dart in her neck. Mars just grinned and violently shook Ash.

"No one will save you this time!" He threw Ash into the ground, buckling some of the tiled floor as his body hit it, making several unpleasant cracking noises. "Now what should I do with you?" Mars gloated. Giovanni watched impassively from the sidelines, not going to interfere with the beating.

Mars absentmindedly grabbed the needle of Arceus blood from the pouch on his belt, flipping the syringe in his hand as he stalked closer to Ash. "Why don't we use you as another test subject, hmmm?" Ash tried to squirm away from the sharp object, but to no avail as his legs were unresponsive.

But his arms worked! Ash grabbed a Pokeball from his belt and was about to throw it, but Mars reached him before. He grabbed Ash's raised arm and broke it. With a large snap and a primal scream that echoed from the young trainer's mouth, the arm went limp.

"Now, now. We can't have you fighting back, can we?" Ash could only whimper in response as Mars slowly dragged the needle across the skin of his broken forearm, the trainers gaze following its every movement.

"If this backfires, all the blame is going to fall on you, Mars." Mars whipped his head around to find the source and found himself looking directly at Giovanni. The startled look was immediately replaced by a sadistic grin as he realized that his master had just given him permission to inject Ash.

Mars stabbed the needle deep into the crook of Ash's elbow and without missing a beat, he shoved the plunger violently to the bottom of its well. As Mars jerked the needle back, the skin under it glowed a soft golden color as Ash's blood stream tried to find somewhere to put all this new fluid. Mars quickly stepped back to Giovanni's side as they both watched the young boy squirm.

The shot just felt like any other shot that had been stabbed straight down into your skin. Painful. And now he was going to blow up like that poor soul over there. _'All this happened in a singular day too…'_ Then he bumped his arm against the ground as he tried to get up. It was still charred horribly and broken from previous events, but he couldn't feel any pain on the surface. Adrenaline tends to do strange things…

A bloating feeling from Ash's right knee cap startled him into falling onto his butt again. A quick glance showed that it was growing substantially and turning a golden color. _'The process has already started.'_ He thought sadly to himself. Next minute, he would be as dead as a doornail.

Ash curled up into a fetal position, wanting this whole ordeal to end and silently wishing that this could just all be a bad dream. Stabbing himself with random sucker stick he found in his pocket did not help…

"_Be calm, no harm will come upon you,"_ A feminine voice echoed into his head. Ash could help but let out a small scream of surprise, which was taken the wrong way by the Rockets. He was not in pain at all, surprisingly, he actually felt a little better than before and the swelling and bulging that was happening all over his body didn't hurt. It just, itched…

"_Who- who are you?"_ Ash inquired knowing that if it was able to access his head, it would be able to hear his thoughts. The female voice chuckled.

"_Why I'm the one in the tank over here."_ Ash transferred his gaze from his knee to the aforementioned tank, his eyes immediately latching onto Arceus, meeting the steady gaze of the legend. She had managed to get herself off of the ground and was standing weakly on her four legs.

'_The serum was only meant to be injected into the chosen one. That's why it had such a violent reaction to the scientist. However, you should be entirely fine though it will have some… side effects.'_ Ash was immensely relieved knowing that he would not die, but what side effects?

"What the hell?" Mars muttered from his place across the room, "It's not working for some reason, guess I'll just have to do this the old fashioned way!" The rocket elite sprinted across the room and brutally kneed Ash in the face. Ash cried out in pain as he was almost knocked over again, but when he saw Mars's face a haze of red clouded the young trainer's vision.

He snarled at Mars and leaped onto his feet, wobbling ever so slightly and proceeded to jam the light, butter like gold shin blades emerging from the side of his leg straight into Mars's groin. _'Wait, shin blades?!'_ Ash looked incredulously at his legs, noticing that they indeed had blades growing out of them and through the jeans he was wearing. _'What the hell is happening to me?!'_

Totally ignoring Mars's pain and agony in favor of inspecting his legs. Rolling up his jeans, he seemed to have a light gold boot structure growing out of his shin. Certain parts of it were starting to look like hoofs, an Arceus's hoofs…

'_Indeed, little one. You are turning into a fine example of my species and a shiny one to boot.'_ Ash gasped as the female god Pokémon informed him of what was happening. She was now sitting on her rump, beaming proudly at Ash who met her gaze in astonishment. While he was distracted, Mars had managed to get over the agony of having the family jewels removed surprisingly fast and went to bash Ash on the head with a metal spiked baton.

Luckily, the top part of the 'helmet' that covers an Arceus's head popped into place with the large snapping sound of bone reforming. The golden yellow armor was not a moment too late to stop the offending object. The only good it did was make Ash even more irate, the dark aura in his eyes coming back for a second time.

"You dare try to harm me!" Ash's voice hadn't changed on the surface, but the undertone seemed to carry a force that told you that disobeying might be the last thing you do for every last inch of Ash's voice was permeated with the power of a God.

As Ash spun around, Mars literally wet his pants. As he turned, the light black and gold mane that extended from the back of Ash's head seemed to billow out from nowhere. With more snapping sounds, similar blades to the aforementioned ones ripped through the flimsy shirt that he had on. Without even looking, Mars could tell that a sheet of hair seemed to be growing underneath the trainers clothing.

Without thinking, Ash leaped forward and slammed his fist into Mars's breastbone, creating a small puncture wound. He then jammed both of his hands into the cut and seemed to grab onto the bone. Then, with a roar that could've been in nightmares, he ripped Mars. In. Half. Vertically!

The now doubled Mars crashed to the ground, almost in sync with the sharp cracks that came from Ash's knees as they folded the opposite way in order to suit the form of a quadruped. Ash was forced to get into that unfamiliar position when his legs fully changed into an Arceus's legs or risk the pointy bits that came off of his knee joint on his hind legs gutting his thighs. His feet turned into hoofs and tapered into points and all of his remaining clothes were ripped off when two golden rings, about as big as a third of a circle each, surrounded his midsection which had already contracted into its bulbous shape.

With a sound like the slither of a blade being drawn, the face of an Arceus enclosed the rest of Ash's human face and his eyes turned a demonic red color. His neck elongated, protrusions shot out all over his neck, legs and chest. Parts turning black and the rest of an Arceus's body correcting its self rapidly. Within a few minutes, Ash had been transformed into an Arceus.

He tried to walk a few feet but stumbled as he was not used to the pointed hooves and quadruped stature. Before he panicked, Arceus stepped in before he hurt himself. While she still did not have enough energy to move herself, she could at least comfort him.

"_Ash. It's okay, everything is going to be fine,"_ she soothed, _"Our species can levitate, remember? I am currently not capable of it right now as I do not have enough strength, so I cannot aid you."_ Arceus warned. Ash gritted his teeth and nodded.

And an old quote from a movie had watched long ago suddenly popped into his head. 'Sometimes you have to run before you can walk.' This seemed a reasonably good way to start off, so he leaped straight into the air, sparks flying off of his hoofs as they grinded against the cement and whatever impurities were contained.

Ash had massively underestimated his new body's physical strength and the leap launched himself through the air, and into the ceiling…

Pain erupted around his midsection as the golden blades got roughly yanked in a direction they were definitely not supposed to go. Lines of fire were traced into his flesh as the stalactites bit hungrily into his body, marring the skin and making Ash cry out as he fell to the floor. The only thing on his mind as he rapidly descended was _'Oh please! Let me hover, fly, do ANYTHING!'_

His body decided the humor the human mind inside and stopped himself midway between the ceiling and floor. **"Finally…"** He muttered to himself. He was able to bring his mind off of hovering for a few seconds as rocks began to fall from the ceiling in increasingly large numbers. He didn't fret about the fact that the cave might be collapsing for none were falling in his area, but around the entrance it was beginning to buckle.

'_The entrance!'_ If that were to collapse, then he would have no way to get Arceus out! But alas, the whole thing buckled as he began to fly towards it. But something good did at least come out of it, Ash found out that floating was no harder than walking. He simply knew which direction he wanted to head in and he went there at whatever speed he desired. His frame was a bit rigid as he hovered, maybe a lot but Ash figured that it would iron its self out over time.

"_Ash! A little help please."_ Arceus's voice echoed in his head. Ash whipped around to see Arceus being held by the scruff of her neck at gunpoint by who else? Giovanni was jamming the barrel of a Revolver up into Arceus's jaw. A now familiar black haze in his eye returned as he roared.

"**Let her go, now!"** Giovanni just gave him an odd expression.

"I can't understand a word you are saying, little boy, but you were a fool to think that you could take us on!" The rest of the grunts in the room seemed to have staved off the effects of grass whistle and were now facing Ash, prepared to kill him if they had to.

"Now I would like you to very slowly, to lay on the ground right there," He said, pointing to the part of wall that was closest to the holding tank, "And I won't kill your dear friend over here…" Worst mistake Giovanni has made ever; pissing off an already irate legendary even more that it already was. And this one just happened to be psychic at the moment.

The blades on the side of Ash's body flashed a light purple color as he lifted Giovanni off of the ground, tearing the gun out of his hand before he could use it. _"You shall pay, mortal! Pay in blood!"_ And with that statement in Giovanni's head, Ash proceeded quarter him, leaving his screaming body to wither in a pool of its own life-blood.

"Fire!" One of the head grunts shouted. All of the Pokémon handled by the grunts shot varying types of large beams at Ash. Every single one slamming into him, but when the smoke cleared, Ash was gone, leaving all the rockets confused and scared for their lives.

Ash could not remember much of what happened after, only small tidbits. When he was shot by all the Pokémon, he had simply teleported behind them. After debating what he should do, he decided to just use brute force and picked up every single grunt and their Pokémon, then slammed them into the ground as hard as he possibly could, killing most instantly.

He remembers vaguely of hunting down all the stragglers and even the scientists and goring them brutally to death in various ways. Disembowelment, dismemberment, decapitation, no technique was too ruthless. When he finally woke up from his trance induced state, he was not the most pleasant site.

He heavily sat down on his rump, looking at his body. Almost every single inch of the hair on him was stained a red color, the gashes looking like paint strokes. He grit his teeth again as Arceus stared worryingly at him, fearing that he might just be a bit unstable. But when he started to cry, she knew that he was no longer in 'psychopath' mode, and her heart broke at the sound of his sobbing.

"_It's going to be okay, everything will be fine,"_ She nuzzled him on the neck for reassurance. Ash just sobbed harder.

"**You don't understand. I killed them all. Every single one of those bastards, I murdered them. And the scary part? I enjoyed it…"** He buried his head into Arceus's shoulder, seeking comfort and reassurance. If the female Alpha Pokémon showed any surprise at the contact, she hid it well and instead drew up alongside him. She wrapped her neck around his and hummed a soft tune, trying to calm the distressed shiny Arceus down.

Slowly, Ash began to relax as his tears cleared up. After a bit, he found himself humming the odd tune that Arceus was humming. This let him take his mind off of his inner demons and instead focus on the things surrounding him. What came immediately to the forefront of his mind was how awkward of a position he is in. Cuddled into Arceus's side as she hummed to him like she was trying to get an upset child to quiet down. And in a way, she was…

Ash blushed and stepped away from her embrace, trying to change the topic. **"Don't you need to get rid of whatever called you?"** and apparently, it worked.

"_Ah, yes! Thanks for reminding me."_ She beamed and teleported away. She returned with a small azure piece of coral that looked as if it had been carved into the shape of a woodwind held in her mouth, but it was quickly teleported into what looked to be a pocket dimension.

"_Come on,"_ She beckoned to Ash, _"We need to tell Mew and the rest of the legendaries about this new development."_ Ash gulped. He had forgotten about that part. How would they react to him now that he was a Pokémon? How would they treat him-?

He was knocked out of his foreboding thoughts by a light psychic shove from Arceus. _"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that if they all liked you when you were human, they'll take to you even better now!"_ She was standing at the cave's entrance, which had been somehow cleared by something. The rocks weren't even moved, they just… disappeared.

"_What are you waiting for? Mew is just outside and she wants to see your new form personally!"_ Ash sighed and trotted over to Arceus. When he came into the mouth of the cave, he was blinded by the rays of sunlight that jumped on him the moment he stepped foot into the outside world.

When his vision finally compensated for the god rays, he was met with the amusing sight of Mew, catching flies…

After a few more moments, Mew suddenly squealed excitedly and shot around Ash in circles too fast to keep track of. She then floated backwards and looked at both of the Arceus's. Then she squealed again.

"**Oh my Arceus, you two look sooooooooo cute together!"** Both of their faces morphed into confused expressions, causing Mew to burst into another giggling fit. Light blushes overtook their faces as they realized what Mew was talking about.

"**Now just wait a second-"**

"**Oh, come on you two. Save the bickering for later!"** Mew giggled. She opened a large portal and pretty much chucked the two alpha Pokémon thought the hole, ignoring their protesting and shouts. Once they were both gone, Mew inspected the area around the portal, making sure that there was no evidence of their passing.

Eventually, she flew into the portal as it closed behind her with a loud snap.


	3. Chapter 2: The Third Compassion

**Hello and welcome to another Chapter of 'Pokemon: The Final Judgment'!**

**Pigeoncracker: Heh ... Also, we got a Beta-Reader helping us here. All thanks to 'Pepper1622'! Thank you for your support for beta-reading this story! You're the best in Beta-Reading department! I really couldn't find someone better than you here.**

**Author: She might be reading this story right now, Pigeon. She might be blushing for your praise right now ^.^**

**Pigeoncracker: Shut up.**

**Mew: Anyway, I think it's time for the Review Time. Absol! You read the reviews!**

**Absol: ...**

**Lucario: I think she's just ... tired, or something. Let Latios read the Reviews.**

**Latios: Sure thing! The first Review is from "Shadow'Blaze14" he said: "****Like I said I like the darkness of the betrayal Interesting so ash has finally either lost it or has decied to take of the kiddie gloves when fighting criminals. For some reason I feel like Giovanni is not dead and that he will comeback just like in cannon. ( even if he didn't die in cannon just lost his memory. )**

**Either way I like it, I think that if ash is going to come back to the world and encounter his traitorish ex-friends, he needs to learn hand-to-hand combat as well as self defense that's my digestion and opinion."**

**Lucario: Giovanni is dead and will stay that way. Unless we decided to give some twist of Fate, and dark-themed battle, then you probably should take your seat and put your seatbelt on. Because this ride is going to be a bumpy and risky one.**

**Author: We're not planning to do that ... yet. I don't think Team Rocket is Evil enough, or so to say. They really unworthy to become the future ruler of the Dark Ages in the world.**

**Mew: That wouldn't happen in this Story ...**

**Absol: ... Next.**

**Latios: This one is for a guest called "TheSkyclanCat" ... or is it? She said: "****Too lazy to log in.**

**Return in Vengence was GOOD. But it had a ton of grammar issues and the story escalated way too quickly and somethings didn't make sense. But this, this rewrite is amazing. You're definitely getting better at writing this stuff. And stuff seems more clear as well. This chapter definitely gave a better explanation on how Ash got turned into an Arceus than the fall into a tank full of Arceus's aura. Keep it up!"**

**Author: Well ... I actually rushed the RV story, anyway ...**

**Pigeoncracker: Thank you for your compliment! We'll try our best for our readers here. Next!**

**Latios: This one is from "Magic Ball" He said: "****I'm sorry but an explanation is needed for something. Why exactly is Arceus's blood meant to be injected into the chosen one? Based on the movie that Arceus has appeared in, only 7 humans have ever met Arceus (Ash, Brock, Dawn, and 4 movie only appearances). So how could Arceus know that Ash wouldn't react like the scientist. I doubt Arceus just gave out free blood samples before, and Ash doesn't really have any relationship to Arceus (Deliha and an unknown man are Ash's parents). So, what in Ash gives him the ability to live the injection?"**

**Author: It will be explained in this Chapter. And in case you haven't notice, Ash's father will appear in this story (Be glad because I just gave you a spoiler) but who? ... take a guess. Next!**

**Latios: This one is from a guest, he said: "****While slightly unrelated, is the mew in the an the same as the mew in the story?"**

**Mew: Of course not! I'm not taking any chances to stoop so low casting on this story aside the AN! We're Authors, and those casters you see down there are our Dolls, and our ideas and imaginations are their Instrument.**

**Author: I ... don't think that's a good speech. But whatever! Next!**

**Latios: This one is from a another guest, he said: "****Woah...umm, I once heard a saying "The mind can only bend so far before it finally snaps"...yeeeeaaaah, captured that really well.**

**Anyways, great chapter and your very welcome for the suggestions Mew and Latios, lol.**

**I always like to give suggestions to stories that have potential, while I understand that not everything will be used, I'm just glad that my thoughts are there to help you out.**

**I have one more suggestion for you to use. Same as last time, it is up to you to use it or not and again, thanks very much for reading.**

**If Max and Dawn do get redemption (I personally feel that out of all the traitors, Dawn has the best chance at getting a 2nd chance) then why not allow Ash to entrust them with certain legendary Pokemon? Max gets Jirachi and Dawn gets Mesprit or Shaymin. I know, I know, that might be pushing it, but if Max and Dawn can show that they deserve it, then hey, why not?**

**Speaking of Legends, I did suggest that Manaphy should fight May, but Manaphy will need a new mother after all is said and done, so there's another reason to go the Harem route if you wish.**

**Aside from some grammar errors here and there, I liked this chapter very much. It showed the inhumanity of Team Rocket and showed Ash's fractured sanity, but to be honest, I'm kinda glad that he went berserk on Team Rocket, although the killing of Pokemon might've been unnecessary (personal opinion) there are no bad Pokemon, just bad Trainers. (Unlike the traitors Pokemon that DID kill Gary, Umbreon and Pikachu, so I can't really say no to killing the traitors Pokemon)**

**I hope we get more chapter's soon, I probably won't have many suggestions anymore seeing as I got most of them out there in Chapter 1, but if I think of anymore, I'll be sure to let you know in a review.**

**Thanks again for reading and thanks for the new chapter, keep up the excellent work. Cya."**

**Mew: To answer your question; No, we're not going to give Redemption that easy to the traitors, considering Ash already give them many chances already. And, no, we're not taking Harm route. We're keeping our basis shipping here, which is Aurumshipping, or as people know as AshXArceus. Next!**

**Latios: This one is from "ASD Pokemon Fan" he said: "****What the hell! Seriously, what the hell? What was it?I mean that was something new. But what will you do on the story line now . I mean he cannot return to his human firm now. And he can't meet his mother and professor Oak. But this was something novel. I liked it. Their was too much suspense. And one one question, what will happen to to his pokemon and the girl's that had a crush on him?"**

**Mew: Let me answer this one ... I can't answer the first question. This is a Dark Story, so deal with it. Don't question our idea and story plan, that's the same way you're trying to ask us about spoilers. And for the last question; No. Just no. They don't like him, they don't have a crush on him, and they don't care about him. And no, his Pokemon may regretted betraying him, and tried to beg for forgiveness. But don't worry, we have so much plan for them ... much Darker plan .. darker than Black ... Muahahahahahahahah! AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!**

**Author: You sound more like a megalomaniac, Mew.**

**Mew: Shut up, Next!**

**Latios: This one is from "Samster687" She said: "****This should be rated M, not T"**

**Pigeoncracker: What are you? Government? No offense, but we have tried our best to keep this story Border-line-T to avoid involving M-rating here. You suggesting us to change it to M rating really insulted our work trying to keep this thing straight in the border line.**

**Author: Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down mate. We'll tolerate this kind of problem, seeing that you just asked question, not giving out Flames. Next!**

**Latios: Uuuh ... I think that's it.**

**Author: Well then. Thank you for reading this Author Note. We appreciate your time to read this piece of video from all of us.**

**Mew: Don't forget to Favorites our story if you like it!**

**Lucario: Also! If you want more, you should consider Following this story!**

**Pigeoncracker: Don't forget to leave a review! Otherwise we wouldn't know your opinion about this story, and our Beta-Reader 'Pepper1622' couldn't improve without the public's commentary. Don't forget to Read-and-Review!**

**Author: I think that's all. Good bye! For now ...**

* * *

**Chapter Info: Chapter 2  
**

**Rating: T**

**Words Count: 6879 Words (Current Chapter)**

**Date/Time Posted: 05:20 - 5/26/2015  
**

**Writer: Aurorabeam**

**Co- Writer: Pigeoncracker**

**Beta-Read: ****Pepper1622**

**Proofread: (None)**

**Last Edit: 10:03 5/31/2015**

**Other Notes:**

"Hello" **-** **Normal Speech  
"Hello" - Pokemon Speech  
_"Hello"_ \- Technology Speaking/Announcement(Intercom)/Extremely Loud Speech  
**"_Hello_" **\- Telepathy  
**"_Hello_" **\- Private Telepathy  
**'_Hello_'** \- Thought  
**

**Warnings: Minor Physiological Theme. Border-line-T rating(Or PG15. Your call). Not for kids! I bet you'll get nightmares. Rewrite of 'Return in Vengeance'. Aurumshipping. Possibly ******Dark!Ash Good!Ash Badass!Ash Godlike!Ash in the future. Pokemon(Arceus)!Serena - Huge Chapter Spoiler here.** More Warning will be added soon.  
**

**Last Chapter Stat (Chapter 1)(5/26/2015):  
Views: 3116  
Favorites: 80  
Followers: 80  
Reviews: 30  
Communities: 1  
**

**|We are proud to represent our story. We hope you have pleasant experience reading with us|**

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Third Compassion**

* * *

The Hall of Origin was a desolate, forlorn place. Lost winds skirted around, not knowing how they got there, but they knew they served a purpose. The silence permeated through the halls, falling upon the deaf ears of the pillars—pillars that stood watching, the ancient sentinels glaring at the ominous blanket of trepidation that covered the marble temple.

A large pink portal appeared in the middle of the main hall, hovering just over the hard white marble that most of the temple was made of. The silence was shattered by chaos, and in turn, the foreboding air was lifted as two Arceus came tumbling out of the portal.

"_OW! That was my tail!"_

"**You're sitting on my face!"**

"_Well, how about you get off of me!"_

"**I'm not on you, you're sitting on me!"**

"_Really? Then what's this?!"_

"**AGH! That happens to be part of me, not sure what part really ****. . .****"**

Ash just sighed. Today apparently was going to be an eventful one. He decided that the best course of action would be to stay still and let Arceus sort herself out and then try moving. Not used to the portal, his vision was spinning wildly out of control, and he felt like breakfast was going to have an early introduction to the world.

Arceus just teleported a few feet away after figuring out where she was. Ash stared jealously after her, deciding to lie on the floor for just a little longer.

"**You have gotta teach me how to do that,"** Ash whined, but his mind quickly turned to another subject. The portal abruptly closed with a loud snapping sound, startling Ash enough that he finally got up. **"Now how are we supposed to get back!?" **

"_You'd think I would know how to get out of my own home, wouldn't I?"_ Arceus chuckled. For the first time since he got here, Ash actually looked at his surroundings.

He was in a massive clearing that had large pillars on all sides holding up what looked to be a newly made ceiling. It didn't seem to have any walls, but it wasn't cold or windy either. The floor he was standing on was just made of a plain flecked marble. Nothing special, but looked pretty nevertheless.

As Ash gazed around in awe, Arceus just stared at him with a knowing expression. _"This place reforms to how I wish it to look. For instance, this is how it normally looks." _Arceus stamped her right hoof once and the ceiling entirely disappeared; the marble pillars cut themselves in half and chipped themselves at angles. When it was done, there was a massive staircase leading up to this platform, a staircase that started from a small dirt area just big enough for a Trainer and a Pokémon to stand.

"_But if I wish it to be, I can have __it __like this, which I prefer__.__"_ The building reformed to how Ash first saw it, except that it now had walls and a few doors big enough for him to get through easily lining each side. At the end of the hall, there were two smaller halls that seemed to go on for unfathomable distances. The arches that surrounded the entrance to the halls had golden flower designs twirling around each arch.

Ash walked over and peered down the left one. **"How far do these go for?"** he asked out of curiosity. There seemed to be no end to them. Arceus gave a dismissive toss of her head.

"_Forever, maybe. They're constantly growing and adding new rooms because I never stop it, and I don't want to. Not even I know how big my own home is__,__"_ she said absentmindedly. Ash gave another growl of frustration.

"**How do you use telepathy?" **Ash asked, confused about, well, everything. To him, the world was suddenly crystal clear, and with his vision, Ash bet that he could see a mouse leagues away. He had somehow gained the knowledge of walking on his misadventure, and he still didn't know the extent of the strength his body contained.

Looking back, he realized that he never properly got to look at himself. Craning his head backwards, he got nauseous from the maneuver. He was definitely not used to having such a long neck. Looking at his back, he could see nothing different than Arceus on his body, except the fact that he was a golden color that seemed to sparkle in the nonexistent sunlight, kind of like flecked paint.

Drawing up next to Arceus, he could tell that he was slightly larger than her, but only by an inch or two. Nothing that was noticeable from a distance.

"_Telepathy? Think about what you want to say and the person you want to talk to. What helped me learn was imagining a conversation between the people you are talking to and yourself, but have those characters be in your head. Forget about the one in front of you." _

Ash tried to imagine himself as a human, because that was what he was on the inside, right? His small figurine was facing a Chibi Arceus inside his head as he tried to say something to her.

"_He-__h__ello?"_

_"Brilliant! That went much better than my first!" _Arceus echoed back with a seemingly pleased expression as she turned to face Ash.

"_Really? What happened your first time?" _He had naturally responded with telepathy. For some reason, it just felt more . . . fitting of his current, hopefully temporary form, not to mention that it was loads easier than actually trying to talk. Arceus turned her head away in embarrassment. Whatever had happened was obviously an awkward subject.

"_Um, well. A migraine that lasted a couple centuries__,__ and let's just leave it at that__,__" _she answered like she would rather go through the whole torture matter with Team Rocket again just to avoid the subject. Ash did not press the matter, for he had more pressing things to be concerned about.

While Arceus was distracted, a small, dark chuckle had developed in the deepest recess of his mind. It grew louder and came at more frequent intervals, and eventually it had grown loud enough that Ash finally noticed it. Taking a quick glance at the said female Legend, he immediately deduced that it couldn't be her.

Removing Arceus from the small scene inside of his head, he replaced her with the laughing that was coming from inside. "_Who are you?"_ He glanced quickly at Arceus, but to his immense relief, she showed no signs of noticing that he was talking to an unknown entity. The laughing stopped momentarily, and a smaller giggle soon escaped.

"_Why__,__ little ole' me? I'm you! Isn't that great!?"_

Ash, however, was inclined to disagree with the little voice. _"How can you be me? I'm—well, me. And __there__ can't be two of me__ . . . __?" _

The voice chuckled darkly as if this was a highly entertaining source of amusement.

"_No, you don't understand. I am YOU. I can control you just as you are controlling yourself. See?_" Ash's vision suddenly cut out as if a plug had been pulled. _"Wow! What a wonderful place we are in, and what a beautiful female you managed to find! Should we ravish her?" _This thought and example was just too much for Ash's mind to handle, and he started backing up slowly while shaking his head.

"_No__—__no__—__NO__—__NO! Get out!" _He started to slam his head into the pillar nearest to him, causing a hairline fracture in the large marble structure. After that didn't work, he just stood still, shuddering and twitching every so often, but still.

Distantly, he could hear someone yelling at him. Something about what was happening and who he wanted out. He felt someone touching his side, trying to get him to respond to anything. But his mind was not in the right state currently, and Ash lashed out with his hoofs, thinking that this person was trying to harm him. This didn't end well at all, because the moment his feet touched the offending object, he was flung violently across the room.

"_Ash__—__going on__—__wound__—__who?" _Nothing made sense; nothing was trying to make sense. All he could focus on was the little cackling voice in his head, and he wanted it _out._ Before he could do any rasher things, like slam his head into the floor a couple times, a solitary hoof pressed his head into the floor.

Pain exploded in his skull like someone was digging around, trying to get fossils out. Ironically, Arceus was digging around, searching for whatever had caused his momentary lapse in sanity. She eventually found the dark spot that was terrorizing Ash, but she couldn't remove it without killing him. Sealing it away was the best idea, but he would have to be near her at all times to maintain it.

Ash's vision slowly crept over, and the headache lessened substantially. But the biggest relief: the voice was gone. Luckily, it had a very short existence, or so he thought. . . .

Ash decided that he didn't want to get up off of the floor, no matter how painful his rings were being. They were surprisingly flexible at the connecting point to his body, allowing them to fold flat onto him, but they were not without the pain of skin being stretched.

"_Arceus, w-what just happened__?__" _He finally opened his eyes to see her sitting sadly over him. A bright red gash contrasting against the normal white was visible upon Arceus's coat. Did he do that? _"Arceus, I'm so, so, so sorry about__—"_

"_Don't be, for it was not you__.__" _Ash could only stare in an astonished silence. _"I was afraid that this might happen after this morning__ . . .__" __s_he trailed off. She closed her eyes and a golden aura surrounded the laceration, healing it and making sure that there was nothing left, not even a scar. Ash heaved himself upwards.

"_So, what did happen?" _he asked purely out of curiosity. She visibly sighed and trotted over to a nearby room, beckoning for him to follow.

She led him to a decently sized room on the outskirts of the main "throne" room. It had velvet cushions for Ash and Arceus to lie down on, but nothing else really. She lay down heavily on a bigger one on the left, somehow making the rings on her disappear entirely so they didn't cause her pain.

Sensing Ash's questioning gaze, she sighed. _"I'm going to have to teach you so much, aren't I?" _she told him, more to herself than anyone, though. _"Just imagine how you want to look and they will disappear__,__ if you will it. This metal contraption is something that was created with us and actually hinders our powers a little, but with the advantage of being able to direct them better." _

Ash nodded his head in understanding, and, sure enough, when he thought about it, the blades disappeared. But before he could lie on the cushion, a light tickling sensation went through his body, and a fine red dust was lifted from him and disposed of.

"_Blood,"_she said simply. _"We __wouldn't__ want that messing up the place__,__ would we? Now __lie __down already__. __I swear__,__ you take longer than Lugia to settle."_

Ash simply grunted and made himself comfortable.

"_Now__, __this might take a while__,__ as I am just going to get it all out in one go, understand?" _

Ash nodded in acceptance, knowing that he was getting himself into something big, but curiosity won in the end. Arceus took a big breath and calmed herself, knowing that the being across from her was more than likely to have a strong reaction to what she was going to reveal.

"_Let's start from when you transformed, shall we? Originally, you weren't meant to survive that encounter with __T__eam __R__ocket. In fact, the serum that he injected into you was fated to kill you. But due to my meddling and tampering with it, you survived __. . .__ with some unintentional side effects." _Arceus held a bated breath, waiting to see what his reaction would turn out to be.

He just blinked . . . once, maybe twice and then beckoned for her to continue with a small incline of his head. Arceus could only stare slightly in shock. Right about now she should've been flooded with thousands of questions, but none came.

"_Well, a couple attributing factors were that being the chosen one, you already had some of my aura that I could access in you. Because of the amount of changes that happened to your body and how much your personality changed, your personalities eventually split themselves. I have no clue how one managed to act separate of your power, but stranger things have happened."_

"_When that side tried to take over your body, you started to experience the pain of having all of your senses and motor functions taken away slowly__,__ and that is not exactly the most pleasant experience to go through. After I figured out that something else was controlling your actions, I accessed your mind and sealed away the part that was acting different."_

"_The good thing about this is that it will no longer bother you. The bad things that come with are that you have to stay close to me to keep it sealed away, which means that you really just have to go with me everywhere. And __there's __the fact that to get rid of it, I have to merge it with your current personality. Over the course of a couple years, it should be fully integrated into your personality."_

At this, Ash's eyes widened substantially.

"_Does that mean that I will become like him?"_ he asked, worried for a very valid reason. _"Will I hurt people? I don't want to convince myself to hurt you! Do you have any idea what he said to me?"_

"_Ash!" _Arceus yelled at him, but he wouldn't halt his incessant yammering. She didn't want to resort to physical contact, but—for the record—he forced her to. Luckily, it only took a head-butt to knock him out of the fear-induced state. After he realized what he was doing, he looked down at the floor in embarrassment.

"_I'm sorry . . ." _he whispered. _"I just didn't want to hurt you after all you've done for me." _This was a surprise for Arceus. She just told him that she had turned him into an Arceus, basically removed his current personality and isolated him from everyone she could. And he was worried for her safety?

"_It's fine. After all you have been through, I don't blame you. It is going to change your personality__;__ however, it will not be a separate version of you. You will be able to decide whether to act upon these impulses__,__ and the only things that will really change would be your morals. I'm not exactly sure how much you will change__, __for even I have never done something like this before. I only sealed it on an impulse."_

"_So, I will be able to control myself?" _Ash asked, verifying what she had already said. Arceus nodded, and a large smile broke across Ash's face. _"Could you teach me how to use my powers? I want to show my friends that I am not the useless person that I used to be!" _

Arceus cut across that sentence harshly, not about to let that be the reason for him to want to be stronger.

"_You were never useless, Ash. Don't let what your past friends said to you go to your head!" _she reprimanded. Ash bowed his head again in acceptance. _"And in answer to your last question__:__ of course! I would love to teach you, but first I will have to introduce you to the other__ L__egend__a__ries." _

Ash let out a large groan.

"_Can I at least get a little training first? Do you think they will like me this way? What is your job__,__ anyway? What happens if I go too far away from you?" _Ash asked in a flurry of questions. Arceus chuckled in amusement, seeing that the old Ash had apparently come back.

"_You may get some training before I introduce you__,__ and of course they will like you! You've saved most of their lives__,__ and they all adore you. What do I do as an Arceus?" _She seemed to ponder this for a moment. _"I tend to the dimensions and the planetary system, making sure that neither fall out of balance. What I think will happen when you are out of my 'range,' well, that's a toughie__ . . .__ I'm not exactly sure, but I think that your other persona might start affecting you more and more until it takes control of you entirely." _She shuddered at the thought.

Ash sighed in relief at the somewhat good news. _"That's great! We should start training right now!" _Ash jumped up from his cushion and nearly toppled to the ground out of exhaustion, but someone's got to keep the world optimistic, right?

"_No, that's the last thing you'll want to do right now!" _Arceus leapt up and reformed her arcs, ready to restrain the impulsive teen if she felt it was necessary. _"Gain some common sense, will you__?__ You're half dead, you went through an experience that most people don't survive without major emotional scarring, you only just got this form today__,__ and you want to go and kill yourself with some training?!"_

"_I'm sorry," _he whimpered, _"I just want to show my friends that hurting and trying to kill someone is a bad thing to do. I just want to __. . . __kill them or something." _He whispered the last part as tears started forming in his eyes. Eventually, it just became too much, and he collapsed, sobbing into Arceus's side.

Sighing, she dematerialized her rings and knelt down beside Ash, hoping to offer some form of comfort. She had no idea what made him suddenly so open around her. They had only known each other for around a day and he was already relying on her for emotional comfort.

"_I'm so sorry__.__" _He drew a shaky breath. _"I don't know what's come over me. Mom told me that hurting people was bad, but I can't help but to__—__but to want to see them suffer." _

Arceus couldn't help but to pity him. In a way, they were the same. She never saw anyone, most people that she had met tried to use her for their own evil deeds, and all the other Legendaries never talked to her.

She was alone.

And yet here was the one person that she hoped to be with the most. Ash was someone she could talk to without the fear of revealing things to compromise her image. Even if he wanted to return to his human shape, a part of her wanted to help him achieve that, another wanted him to stay as an Arceus forever just so she could have some company. She knew it was selfish, but she couldn't help but to hope.

Yes, there was a way for an Arceus to look like a human using a reflection system similar to a Latias and Latios. But you could never be fully human. Every time you could no longer hold the illusion, you were reminded that you were not a human and most likely never would be.

"_Arceus?" _Ash asked, no longer crying but still pressed close to the female Legend.

"_Yes, Ash?" _

"_I was wondering__—__I was wondering if there was any way I could say good__-__bye to a couple of people?"_ He looked up hopefully at Arceus while a fairly large smile grew across her face.

"_I think I may have a way, but first tell me who you want to meet." _She couldn't help it—she was curious. Ash hesitated for a minute, but eventually his impatience got the best of him.

"_Well, Serena__ . . .__" _A light blush overtook his face as he mentioned the girl, but it was not enough to miss the sudden interest Arceus had with the name. She actually had a slightly puzzled look on her face and some other emotion that he couldn't identify.

"_Serena? Why do you want to see her?" _Then she noticed the small blush on his face. _"You have a crush on her!" _Arceus teased, though it was a bit awkward for her to do so.

"_N-no I d-don't!" _he stuttered, then realized it was hopeless; he had been read like an open book. _"Fine __. . .__ yes."_ Arceus giggled slightly as a small blush colored her face, leaving Ash confused with the whole situation. It was sort of funny how all of this ended out. And at least Arceus could say she liked the outcome.

_"So, how did you met her?" _Arceus asked with a small smile.

Ash hummed in thought. _"Well, I met her __a__ few years ago, back when I was still __five__ years old." _Arceus nodded for him to continue. _"It was when I was exploring the forest near Route 1 in the Kalos __region__. I was chasing a Marill, if I remember correctly." _

Ash paused as he tried to remember the events. _"Then, I heard a high__-__pitched scream come from the forest and instinctively ran to the source. When I found it, I __saw __this girl, Serena, struggling to defend herself against a rouge Rhyhorn."_

_"Then?"_ Arceus asked again; she was curious about how Ash had seen the situation. From her perspective, it was the Rhyhorn that needed the most help. The scream was just to keep up appearances. She gestured for him to continue the little tale.

_"I ran in front of Serena to see if I could calm it and threw my hands in __a __defensive position. I decided that's where I was going to stand, right in front of that thing's path__.__"_ Ash hummed again. _"I can't believe I was that stupid, but I couldn't help it. That's when things took an interesting turn."_

_"Oh? Is it when your Aura abilities awakened?" _Arceus asked, knowing it was common to discover them in near-death experiences. Ash nodded in confirmation.

_"Yes, I don't know how, but I hit the Rhyhorn with a ball of aura__,__ and it fainted after two more. Once that was over I managed to use my handkerchief to cover her wounds. After that, I carried Serena back to Professor Oak's lab and __told __Professor Oak about it__. . . .__ He didn't believe the story at all, not even when Serena told him about it."_

_"But," _Ash continued, _"__i__t was her gratitude that __made __me like her. She kissed me__ . . .__" _Ash blushed a bit._ "It was the first kiss that I ever got. Just a peck on the cheek when she was leaving, but it was so much more to me. After a while, I fell for her. Hard. Those beautiful sparkling in the moonlight, her luscious hair waving in the wind __. . .__ she really looked like a __g__oddess__,__" _Ash stated in his daydreaming state, not knowing just how true that statement was.

As he continued on, he didn't notice that a steady blush was growing across Arceus's face. Pawing the ground, she wondered if he could take it if she did this . . .

_"Oh? I could bring you to meet her right now__,__ if you really wanted to." _Arceus just loved drawing out the inevitable and confusing the male even more than he thought possible.

"_Really? I would love that! But how is she going to know who I am?" _Ask asked Arceus, but those thoughts were shoved out of his head by a more important realization: _"Wait, scratch that. How did you know about my Aura awakening? Most importantly, why are you blushing?"_

_"Ash_, _I want to tell you a secret__,__"_ Arceus told Ash in a quieter than normal voice, causing him to reflexively lean forward even though it would make no difference with telepathy. It achieved the desired effect anyway.

_"What is it?" _Ash cocked his head slightly to the right. Arceus smiled, her mischievous grin growing ever wider.

_"Do you want to know how I know all this stuff? Do you know how I know what she knows? I will tell you, but only if you think that you can handle it __. . .__"_

Ash hummed in thought. With his usual dense attitude, he replied, _"Were you watching us? That's mean. Of course I can handle it!" _Arceus almost face-faulted.

_"You know what? Never mind!" _A bright white orb surrounded Arceus as Ash jumped far away from her side with agility he didn't know he possessed. The light that emitted from it was more than blinding. It was searing. It didn't emit anything or make any sounds—it was just concentrated light in a small area, and it caused black spots to dance over his vision long after the light had died down.

Shaking his head to clear his vision, what Ash saw next had him staring at what Arceus had become for several minutes. His mind just couldn't comprehend what had just happened.

What he saw was the same girl that he had saved years ago back in the Professor Oak's Summer Camp, complete with the same clothes from the last time he saw her, including the same handkerchief on her ankle, but acted upon by twelve years! He couldn't believe what he was seeing! Arceus was actually Serena?! Or was Serena Arceus? Somehow, she had just changed her shape into—Ash passed out.

With a loud thump that startled Arceus/Serena into jumping backwards several feet, Ash's unconscious body hit the marble floor. Arceus could only stare in shock. She had no idea that her transformation would cause such a reaction, but now how was she supposed to teach him how to utilize his human shape?

Arceus walked over to Ash and affectionately brushed some grime off of his mane. "What am I going to do with you . . . ?"she said more to herself than anyone. She transformed herself back to an Arceus and reformed her rings. She reformed Ash's after a second's thought by just influencing his aura. The last time she slept without her rings on, Cinnabar Island's old town may have been wiped out. . . . There was no telling what destruction Ash could cause in his sleep without those.

She randomly chose a room near her own and placed Ash in it, hopefully in a semi-comfortable position, and let her facade of strength fall. It was going to be hard to lose the habit of doing that in Ash's presence, but all he really needed was a stable rock to hold on to in the tumultuous waters of his life.

Arceus leaned heavily against the wall, all the implications of having a new Arceus dawning upon her. For one, there was only supposed to be one Arceus. The truth was that this was an absolute lie. The only reason there was only one Arceus is because of just that. There was only one, and she was damn sure that she was not asexual. This eventually spawned off that legend and off that myth goes.

All the other Legendaries were going to have mixed reactions about this, contrary to what she said to Ash earlier. Some may accept it, others will be against it. She was sure that at least two of them would try to kill him to make sure he didn't "replace them." The others would probably welcome him, especially the ones he had saved in the past. She had a feeling that Lugia and Latias would be his biggest allies and friends in the upcoming years.

On the plus side, her job wouldn't be as stressful with another Arceus to aid her. Knowing his legendary luck, he was a Shiny that could rival or even surpass her current power. She could scout the world for longer distances and actually have some free time for once. Managing the solar system was depressing.

Occasionally, she would have to go to the surface when one of the Legendary trio wasn't doing their job and closing rifts like they were supposed to be. Just thinking about those three was already giving her a headache. Their constant bickering and fighting was a pain. And she wasn't even thinking about what on earth Mew was doing currently. The possibilities were endless, and every last one led to some sort of trouble that resulted in her and most likely Celebi cleaning up the aftermath.

Maybe, just maybe, with a faithful mate to reinforce her decisions, her life could be a touch easier. This was the first time she had actually talked sort of normally to someone, and it was . . . refreshing, to say the least. With no one else to confide to, all the other Legendaries would probably ridicule her just for saying any of the things that were running through her mind.

Now she had someone that was like her, someone with a huge burden thrust upon his back at a young age and with nothing but naivety and endless optimism at his side. The world was presented to them and they were expected to do something about it. And of course, they tried their absolute best, only to get nothing out of it . . .

Admittedly, she had the larger burden, but she couldn't fathom what the pain of losing all the people you held dear to you in one day would've felt like, and then losing his own form on top of that. Ash was handling everything surprisingly well, taking everything into consideration.

If she ever got transformed into a human, she would first panic, then go strangle whatever sadistic entity thought it was funny to play tricks on a god with her brand-new hands.

"_If you can survive this whole ordeal, Ash__, t__hings just might end __up __better than you think it to be__,__"_ she thought to herself. Of course, they would have to figure out a training regime for him that wouldn't interfere with what she was doing. That meant the morphed Trainer would suddenly find himself with a lot of alone time.

She remembered the one time she asked Ho-Oh if she would ever get a companion. The bird had first giggled a little, then spouted out this nonsense:

_When the time is right and the sun shines bright_

_From ashes, from blood, from agony, your fated will arise from a blight_

_Cursed, torn, ripped, scarred, broken beyond repair_

_Stitches will not suffice, oils will slide off, and nothing will have effect on the affair_

_Skin deep, the scarring is not, for the wounds in the soul are the hardest to heal_

_The darkness contained in the mind, you will have to repeal_

_Only then will your beloved shine through_

_The cracks, close. The wounds, scar and he will find his way to a hatred he will brew_

_Aid him, assist him, and trust him for he will not be complete _

_Until punishment deserved, has been deemed obsolete_

_The rugged path he travels contains many hardships deemed fated_

_Only at the end will your companion's lust for repentance be sated _

_More pain, more suffering, more scarring he will go through_

_At the end of it all__—_

At that point, Ho-Oh had choked on something that Mew had shoved in her mouth that looked suspiciously like it was for female pleasure. After Arceus had saved Ho-Oh from choking to death, the bird went off to strangle the pink Legendary.

When she was satisfied, Ho-Oh couldn't remember what she was saying, and the other half was forgotten. Looking back at it, it was basically a treasure map for her, and a good one to boot. Some parts obviously concerned her, and others pleased her.

The part that pleased her was it obviously said that Ash was her fated, but the part that worried her said that Ash would have to go through more pain and suffering than he currently had. And that frightened her. She didn't want him to get hurt at all, and causing him more pain would surely break him. The last part worried her also. It could be good, it could be bad, and an ominous "end" hung in it.

She decided that she should keep this from him until later. Yes, it might bolster his spirits, but this prophecy said things that she didn't want to force on him just yet. It could possibly be disastrous for him and her.

There was a loud thump and a short roar from the room she put Ash in. She could safely guess that he had woken up and probably hurt himself somehow. Trotting down the hallway, she made her way to her room, which was the first on the left if she ever needed a nap or breather.

Arceus don't actually sleep. She may take a short nap here and there when she is feeling worn down, but otherwise she is fully awake. She figured Ash would find this out soon, while he may still feel sleepy. That would only be because his body was so used to resting at that time. Eventually, he will probably give up on sleeping.

Temporary daydreams were what replaced dreams, and Arceus could do some interesting things with their bodies. She found out long ago that she could nearly stop her breathing and dual hearts and enter a sort of stasis. She could stay as still as a stone for years at a time while still remaining aware of the outside world.

The next room was Ash's temporary encampment, and she opened the door immediately without regard to the human rules of politeness. The first thing she saw was the blood on the floor, then Ash in a heap just to right of it, one of his rings limper than it should be.

He grinned and got up off the floor, the limp ring flopping downwards to reveal the torn skin, bone, and sinews under it.

"_I'm going to have to get used to these__.__" _He smiled lightheartedly then grimaced when he tried moving. _"Could you perhaps heal these like you did with your cut?" _Arceus stopped staring at the wounds and reattached his rings with a soft golden glow.

"_Now__, __how did you manage to do that?" _Arceus asked sternly. Ash grinned sheepishly and bowed his head down in embarrassment.

"_I tried to get up and, well, fell on one __. . .__" _He gave her another embarrassed grunt.

"_You are going to get so much training!" _She stopped glaring at Ash and walked out of the room, giving a huge sigh of exasperation.

Arceus walked to the main room in the Hall of Origin, leaving Ash to sort himself out. With a loud cracking sound, Mew suddenly flashed herself right in front of the Alpha Pokémon, starling her to bits. The pink Pokémon gave a little wave right in Arceus's face.

"**How's he doing right now?" ** Mew asked, noting the little blood spots all over and the little crimson spot on the bottom of Arceus's hoof.

"_He's hopeless__._" Arceus sighed, then turned to the other subject in hand. _"Have you destroyed all evidence pertaining to me?"_

**"Yup! Nothing left in that blasted ****hellhole ****they called a laboratory****.****" **Mew, serious for once, told her, **"I fully collapsed the cave and killed any survivors. All Pokémon that survived were released. Notes that said anything about you were destroyed. Your existence will stay a myth."**

_"Good__.__" _Arceus nodded. With Mew seemingly satisfied currently, she resumed her playful demeanor.

"**So . . ." ** She drew out the word. **"What have you two been doing while I was gone? Getting all snuggly and finding where to get protection?" **

Arceus choked on air, bewildered by the sudden comment.

_"We have been doing nothing of the sort!"_ she fiercely denied. _"I found that he has split personalities__,__ and it took a while to subdue it!"_ Mew giggled again.

**"What was it? His amorous side!"** she teased, flipping around in circles, giggling, **"Stop trying to deny it, you know you love him! I mean, why else would you kiss him after he 'saved' you?"**

Arceus's eyes widened. She had forgotten that she had told Mew about some of her adventures. _"What are you talking about? He remains a friend and a friend only."_

**"Oh? So he's not taken, then?" **Mew spoke in a teasing tone. **"You know what? I actually like****d**** Ash the first time I met him. I don't think you****'d**** mind if I kiss him?" **She leaned close to Arceus. **"Lips to lips?"**

_"Don't you dare __. . .__"_ Arceus growled, stamping one of her feet as if daring Mew to pass. She gasped a little in fake drama; then the biggest smile that she had ever seen spread across her face.

"**You do! You love him, you love him!" **Mew chanted. Arceus grit her teeth in frustration. She was getting nowhere in this argument.

_"Mew, I do not like him in that way. I can be concerned for his welfare. However, I'm pretty sure that no one wants to be kissed by you__,__" _she responded. Mew smiled knowingly, accepting that what she said was probably true.

**"Oh****,**** don't worry, Arceus. I'm sure everyone will be happy to see him with you!" **Mew giggled again. **"Now, where has golden boy gone?"**

_"Hopefully in his room, resting,"_ Arceus answered. She was about to continue her sentence when Mew cut her off.

"**Is that where the blood came from?" ** she asked, gesturing at the splash of red on her right foreleg. **"Hopefully it wasn't from your first time!" **Arceus blushed a color that rivaled Mew's pink fur in comparison, realizing the implications of what she said.

_**"Hey**__**,**__** ya'll!"**_ A large red, gold, and orange bird flashed into existence, shattering the mood. Mew halted her teasing and Arceus quickly controlled her blushing, shooting a look at Mew that said, 'If you tell her anything, I will kill you.' Arceus got up and turned to the newcomer.

"_Ho-Oh? What are you doing here?"_

_"I was going to give you the report about the new Johto __p__resident, but seeing you girls here, there must be something important going on__,__"_ she summed up. "_What are you two up to now?_"

**"Ho-****O****h! You won't believe what has transpired! Ash is now an Arceus!" **Mew squealed vigorously. Ho-Oh's eyes widened to previously impossible sizes as she took in the new information.

"**Really? Can I see him? I want to see what he looks like!" **Ho-Oh, more emotionally reserved than Mew, somewhat politely asked. Arceus stamped her hoof again in frustration, not liking how the situation had turned out. She quickly shook her head.

"_No! At least not right now. He is still recovering. The transformation and the current issues he got from it are taking their toll on his body__,__ and he will need all the rest he can get." _

Ho-Oh sighed and perched on a bench that was lying around.

"**You sure this isn't just an excuse to get some alone time before you share?" **Both Mew and Ho-Oh almost simultaneously responded. Arceus jerked backwards in an embarrassment that was becoming far too common lately.

_"Enough!"_Arceus boomed. At this point her face was redder than Mew's fur. _"H__-h__e's a friend! Just a friend! Nothing more, nothing less!"_

_"You didn't deny the fact that you like him," _Mew pointed out as she tried to release the hold Arceus had on her mouth with Psychic. Arceus glared at them both, not really sure what to do with the situation. She growled once and chose not to pursue the subject.

She turned her gaze to Ho-oh. _"You! Leave the report on my desk and get out of this dimension now. And Mew__ . . . y__ou've done your job__—__leave!" _Arceus finally released Mew's restraint as Ho-Oh disappeared in a flash of fire.

Mew opened her mouth to probably say another innuendo, but when Arceus leveled her glare at the small feline Pokémon, she decided that aggravating Arceus even more than she was currently may not be the best idea. With a purposeful crack that was more for show than actually caused by it, she flashed herself out of the room.

_"Finally __. . .__" _She sighed with relief. _"I don't think it's a good idea to reveal it to them or him__ . . .__ yet__.__"_ A small blush and smile graced her face. _"Just wait until I get my hold on Mew__,__"_she growled quietly to herself.

Unbeknownst to her, the aforementioned Shiny Arceus could be seen staring agape from around the corner. Trying to process what had just happened, he thought, '_Was Arceus in love with me? Do I really love her? And shouldn't __I __love a human?_'

Were his instincts talking, influencing him? He was so confused, not knowing who or what to believe, but assured that it would all eventually sort itself out.


	4. Chapter 3: The Fourth Signs

**Author: Hello world! Welcome to another Chapter of "Pokémon: The Final Judgment"!**

**Mew: YAY! Another Chapter!**

**Pigeoncracker: Welcome to the next, albeit very long chapter!**

**Lucario: 16 thousand words doesn't sounds long ...**

**Author: Lucario, I think it's just you who reads a lot of story ...**

**Lucario: Whatever. Should we get to the Review Section now? The readers are anxious to read the story.**

**Mew: Yup Yup!**

**Author: *Sigh* Alright. Latios, you're up!**

**Absol: ... Latios is not here.**

**Mew: Oh! I forgot! I sent him to the Pizza Hut to take out some pizza!**

**Author: Alright. Mew, you read it.**

**Mew: Okay! Hmm ... the first review is from a Guest. He said: "About magic ball comment about the rhyhorn Arceus is practically pokemon version of God not a god like other legenderies no it's the most powerful I can either get rhyhorn to either attack it by it orders to test ash or she could hide her power ash and arceus most likely did it in the original if not then how do the Pokemon outside bow to their power or notice them at all."**

**Pigeoncracker: *Blinks* What? No offense, but is there a period in there somewhere? I got testing Ash and something about a Rhyhorn. Is there a run-on sentence translator somewhere?**

**Author: I don't think there's any, Pigeoncracker.**

**Mew: Dude, it's a sarcasm.**

**Author: Oh ... anyway, I don't know what you're talking about, Guest. And oh, the story tells that Serena is attacked by a Rhyhorn because it thought that Serena the Arceus is weak in her human form. She was about to blow her life away through, until Ash jumps in and did the job.**

**Mew: Well, that was a nice explanation. Next!**

**Author: Mew, you're the Review Reader.**

**Mew: Oh, right. Ahem! The next review is from another Guest. He said: "I say ash should forgive the pokemon that betrayed him they only attack him for the belief he killed Gary and pickachu so how bout in one of the chapters a legendary that is almost considered a God tells them the truth ash's pokemon will ask for forgiveness and he'll forgive them if that was the only reason."**

**Author: NO! I DISAGREE THIS IDEA!**

**Mew: Double no!**

**Lucario: Triple no!**

**Absol: ... first yes.**

**Author&amp;Mew&amp;Lucario: WHAT?!**

**Pigeoncracker: I would agree with Absol, but we have different plans for those pokémon and getting attached to them would not be beneficial.**

**Author: Hmm ... Don't worry. We have plans for them ... hehehe ... hahaha ... MUAHAHAHAHAHAAHA! _MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!_**

**Mew: Here we go again ...**

**Lucario: I don't want to hear it ...**

**Absol: ... Next.**

**Mew: Oh, right. Ahem! The next review is from 'SilentGuardian22'. He said: "Wow! a really great story you got here great story and this is my first time i read about ash's betrayal really cool man but... i can alike a bit uncomfortable because this is a dark story but hey no complain here i said again great story keep it up oh tell mew that lucario steals mew's cookie's hehehehe."**

**Mew: *Hides her cookies***

**Lucario: Why should I steal her cookies? I have my own cookies in my pocket!**

**Author: Thank you for your praise. Next!**

**Mew: Okay. The next one is from 'Team Emerald Leader'. He said: "Well then not bad chapter. And ash's father? Wow. Anyway Can't wait to see more chapters and can't wait to see Ash in the Sinnoh league. Plus I'll also like to see that Ash beat max with Jirachi like Manaphy with may. Plus I'll like to see a of Ash to know the truth about him but they won't tell his 'friends' who think he's dead *cough* Paul *cough* (Anyway nice chapter)."**

**Author: Hmm ... Just for a semi-spoiler warning ... and to add your curiosity ... Ash's father will be revealed at the next Chapter.**

**Mew: Or the next next one.**

**Lucario: Or the next next next one.**

**Absol: ... Basically, it is still undecided. But he will be revealed.**

**Pigeon: *groan* Soooo cliché. Personally, I think he shouldn't have a father, but whatever floats your boat.**

**Author: *Sigh* He will-**

**Mew: NO SPOILER!**

**Author: Alright, alright. Fine. Next!**

**Mew: Alright. The next one is from-**

**Latios: Hey guys, i'm back! I got the Pizza right here!**

**Mew: Oooh!~ A Pizza!**

**Author: Ahem. Mew.**

**Mew: Oh, right. The next one is from a guest called 'Fan'. He said: "Nice sub plot. One thing that long stories should do now-a-days, is have a good sub-plot. Ash and Arceus' internal struggles definitely make a good compliment to Ash sticking it to his former friends. Keep it up, I can't wait to see the Ledgendary reactions and possible training montages! Also, where are Ash's Pokemon that didn't die or betray him during all this? One thing a story needs to avoid (unless there are sequels) is loose ends."**

**Pigeoncracker: What happened to most of the pokémon is simply, nothing. Somethings about them will be revealed in this chapter, but I will make sure that they do not become a lose end. Hopefully the battle near the middle of this is satisfactory!**

**Author: Yeah. We have the main menu planned right here! Be prepared, gentlemen. Because this is just the beginning ...**

**Mew: ... So, where did you quote that from?**

**Author: *Facefell* I made it on my own ...  
**

**Lucario: *Snicker*  
**

**Latios: Oh, so you guys reading AN here? *Eats Pizza*  
**

**Mew: Yeah- wait, hey! Leave some pizza for us, would you?!  
**

**Latios: Fine, fine.**

**Lucario: Oh yeah. Latios, what toping did you order?  
**

**Latios: Black pepper and chicken meat. That one is from the One-Free-One Sunday Bonus.  
**

**Lucario: Dammit, Latios! I told you to buy the chile one!**

**Pigeoncracker: And the meat! I'm vegetarian, dammit. Now I have to sit here and watch you all eat...**

**Latios: Well, sorry, but you didn't hear your order. Oh, and the bonus has a Steak Meat toping, by the way.**

**Pigeon: Uhhg...**

**Author: What?! Why did you order meats?! You know that Pigeoncracker is coming over, and you know that he doesn't like meats.**

**Latios: Wait, Pigeoncracker is here?  
**

**Author: *Smacks Latios*  
**

**Latios: Ow! What was that for?!**

**Author: That, is for your ignorance. Now let's get back to our subject. Next!**

**Mew: Oh right. Ahem ... the next one is from 'Magic Ball'. He said: "Major mistakes. Ash seeing 'serena'. Oak is in kanto, not kalos. The first (and only) route to have maril un Kaos is route 3 by surfing. Route one in Kalos doesnt have any wild pokemon. Route one 1 in Kanto only has pidgy and ratattas. Finnaly, cannon-wise, Ash and Serena meet in Porfessor Oak's camp, after she hurts herself. You also mentioned that arceus could do many things in plural form. If Ash is the second arveus, ever, than a singular form should be used here. This very much explains the few unexplained things in chapter 2. Much, much, much better than Return in Vengence. Although, unless it really is important, wwhy is Arceus Serena? And what of Serena's mother? Also, why is a Ryhorn attacking a goddess? Anime characters mention they can 'fee' the power of powerful pokemon (Mewtwo). So is this Ryhorn dumb or..."**

**Pigeoncracker: Thank you for pointing out the errors. I believe that most of these have been corrected *glares at author*. And yes, the Rhyhorn is very territorial, dumb, and used to be a trainers pokémon.**

**Author: Hey!**

**Mew: Hmm ... Why Arceus is Serena?**

**Author: Well, I want to make it romantic. I made this fic back when Armourshipping is popular, so ... yeah ... Armourshipping and Aurumshipping crossover.**

**Mew: You mean we.**

**Author: Yeah, we. Keep forgetting that Pigeoncracker also writes them, ehehe ...**

**Pigeoncracker: And you'd better not forget it!**

**Mew: Don't worry. I'll keep him remember those things.**

**Pigeoncracker: Everyone needs a good smack on the head every now and then. Latios, well, maybe a bit too much...**

**Author: As for Serena's mother ... ever thought about Mew-in-disguise acting as her mother?**

**Mew: Wait ... the other me disguised as Serena's mother?  
**

**Author: Why not? Mew is Arceus' second-in-command after all.  
**

**Latios: Wait, you never mentioned that to us ...  
**

**Author: *Sigh* That one will be explained in the next Chapter. Next!  
**

**Mew: ... alright, then. The next one is from 'WesternFail'. He said: "That is a long wait! But it is worth it! Great new chapter! One personal opinion: I know that Aurumshipping plays an important part in this this story, and I am interested whats is gonna happen between Ash and Arceus next, but try to keep that part of the story not too long, I am personally more interested in Ash's revenge on his "friends". :)**

**-In accordance with the Prophecy."**

**Author: Like I said, we have plans for them ... hehehe ... ahahahahaha ... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! _MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_**

**Mew: Here we go again ...  
**

**Latios: Next! *Munches Pizza*  
**

**Mew: Oh no you don't! You're not going to order me around saying 'next' when you're munching that pizza!  
**

**Lucario: Not to mention he bought the wrong toping ...  
**

**Latios: Hey! I said I'm sorry, okay?  
**

**Author: Yeah, yeah, we all forgive you ... Next!  
**

**Mew: The next one is from 'randypandy11'. He said: "Arceus is a God in the Pokemon World, why is she acting human, feeling emotions?"  
**

**Author: That ... is a hard question to answer ...**

**Pigeoncracker: Yes, a God she may be, but even then she still has the emotions that we automatically declare human. Everyone desires someone to love them, hold them, take care of them, and praise them no matter how reserved they may be. I'm trying to make sure that she doesn't show much emotion at places, but there are parts where I have deemed it necessary.**

**Author: Good answer. I bet the readers are smiling reading that one ^^  
**

**Mew: Comical Tears It's so beautiful ...  
**

**Lucario: AHEM!  
**

**Author: Oh, right. Ahem, next!  
**

**Mew: The next one is from 'ThatLittleBitOfPokemon1380'. He said: "Right. After reading chapters one and two I firmly believe that this should be M rated. This is a very good story, and I mean VERY good. But if it's rated T, the violence needs to be toned down a notch."  
**

**Author: Suggestion accepted. We're going all out on violence. Next!**

**Mew: This one is from 'Stallion6 of Deviantart'. He said: "If Arceus was Serena...then where is her Pokemon from Kalos?"  
**

**Author: This story is started post-Kalos and the end of 5th Generation/Unova Season. So, she basically doesn't have any Pokémon at the current time. Next!  
**

**Mew: ... No more review that interests me. I think that's all.**

**Pigeoncracker: Also, thanks for the 100 favs! You guys rock and I had no idea that this story would take off like a rocket!**

**Author: Not to mention 19 Reviews in one Chapter ...  
**

**Mew: What?! That's crazy! I've never noticed the Favorites and Followers numbers until now!  
**

**Lucario: Absol is the one who manages those things. You should ask her the next time you want to know about it.  
**

**Mew: Okay!  
**

**Author: Hmm ... I think that's all for the Author Notes. Don't forget to press that Favorites button if you like it!**

**Pigeoncracker: And please review- Screw it, just hit ALL the buttons!**

**Mew: Ahahahahaha! xD**

**Author: Also, try to share this story with people around the other Communities! Spread this story to your community, share them, and let your people reads them.  
**

**Mew: I think that's all for now ... good bye!  
**

**Author: Alright. Now that was done, LATIOS! DON'T EAT ALL THAT PIZZA! WE'RE GOING TO REFUND IT!  
**

**Latios: WHAT?!  
**

**Mew: Wait, you can't-**

* * *

**Chapter Info: Chapter 3  
**

**Rating: M  
**

**Words Count: 16099 Words (Current Chapter)**

**Date/Time Posted: 11:25 - 7/13/2015  
**

**Writer: Aurorabeam**

**Co- Writer: Pigeoncracker**

**Beta-Read: ****Pepper1622**

**Proofread: (None)**

**Last Edit: 11:21 7/13/2015**

**Other Notes:**

"Hello" **-** **Normal Speech  
"Hello" - Pokemon Speech  
_"Hello"_ \- Technology Speaking/Announcement(Intercom)/Extremely Loud Speech  
**"_Hello_" **\- Telepathy  
**"_Hello_" **\- Private Telepathy  
**'_Hello_'** \- Thought  
**

**Warnings: Minor Physiological Theme. PG-17 Rating (Possibly going Border-Line-MA). Not for kids! I bet you'll get nightmares. Rewrite of 'Return in Vengeance'. Aurumshipping. Possibly ******Dark!Ash Good!Ash Badass!Ash Godlike!Ash in the future. Pokemon(Arceus)!Serena - Huge Chapter Spoiler here.** More Warning will be added soon.  
**

**Last Chapter Stat (Chapter 2)(7/13/2015):  
Views: 6785  
Favorites: 100  
Followers: 110  
Reviews: 49  
Communities: 1  
**

**|We are proud to represent our story. We hope you have pleasant experience reading with us|**

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Fourth Signs**

* * *

"_Come on! That rock isn't going to fly by __itself__. Concentrate!_" Arceus encouraged. Peering upon the scene, you could see two Arceus standing near each other, the Shiny one attempting to list a large boulder with his physic abilities.

It has been a singular month since Ash started living together with her. During that time, Arceus has sheltered and rigorously trained Ash, teaching him how to use his newfound abilities. She, however, refused to teach him the ability to cloak himself as a human, claiming it to be too advanced.

Arceus knew this was an absolute lie. It happened to be one of the easiest, but she was foolishly afraid that if he regained his human form, albeit temporarily, he might want to resume his journey and never come back. And that thought terrified Arceus.

_"I'm__ . . . __trying __. . .__"_Ash grit his teeth in frustration. He was concentrating on a huge Snorlax rock in front of them, trying to levitate it with his psychic power. He wondered how Arceus trained by herself, considering she always trained him like a slave driver.

Bit by bit, the rock started to vibrate then slowly lifted into the air. The Shiny Arceus kept concentrating on the large boulder, levitating the rock until it was floating about three feet above the ground. Arceus seemed impressed with his progress. A week ago he couldn't even lift a pebble.

_"Well done. You can rest now."_

Ash sighed in relief as he broke his concentration, making the rock fall downwards into the floor with a loud crash. Strangely, the marble floor didn't shatter or fracture at all. Arceus rolled her eyes at Ash as he stared agape at where it landed.

_"I think it's time to introduce you to the others." _She hummed softly to herself, causing Ash to turn his head towards her in silent surprise.

_"Really?"_ Ash raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Arceus gave a curt nod in reply.

_"Yes, I needed to host a meeting anyway."_ Her eyes began to glow with a golden light, showing that she was using powerful telepathy to connect to the other Legendaries and summon them. When she finished, the light in her eyes died.

Suddenly, the hall transformed into a huge courtroom. It looked more like a meeting room than a courtroom. The whole building had become open to the elements once again, not that there were any elements to do so. There was an oval indentation in the ground in the middle of the floor, looking like a large bathtub. The whole thing had a massive flat area surrounding it.

Various perches and pads could be seen surrounding the edges, making it pretty obvious that Pokémon were the ones attending. The whole thing was made of a light granite, other places were reinforced, and several areas looked like a Legendary had lost their tempter. This meeting room design is usually used for the Legendary Meeting.

_"Hmm ... this is a good design ...__" _Ash calmly spoke. Arceus wasn't surprised with his calm behavior. In fact, she was expecting it. The Ash people used to know is slowly changing, thanks to the external personality that is slowly merging with his current consciousness. She won't be surprised if Ash became politer or ruder one day. Nor if he started trying to seduce or woo her one day.

_"Umm __. . .__Arceus?"_ Ash hesitantly asked out of concern. _"Is there something wrong? Your face is extremely red."_

True to his words, Arceus's face was as red as a Latias's red feather in comparison. _"I-I'm not thinking about it! No! I-I mean, yes, I'm fine__,__"_ Arceus shuttered out. Ash raised a figurative eyebrow but didn't push the subject. She was lucky that Ash still dense as ever; if he wasn't, she would've just got the teasing of her life.

She knew that it was very likely that this dense behavior would disappear in the future, thanks to the merging external personality, but she didn't know when she would—ARGH! Arceus made a mental note to NOT think about her personal life around anyone ever again, just in case anyone caught her off-guard like this.

The first Legendary to heed Arceus's call was surprisingly Mew, causing Arceus to give the pink Legendary a rather peculiar look as she popped into existence, a few miscellaneous pink bubbles floating off from her body. Ash was the first to recover from the small surprise.

_"Hey__,__ Mew!"_ Ash greeted. He was already used to her childish and hyperactive behavior as she tended to visit him often. Though every time she came, she seemed rather wary of Arceus. What was left of that tension seemed to disappear as Mew floated over to Arceus.

"**Hi****,****Arcy!" **she squealed. Arceus chose not to reply, instead continuing to glare at her, letting out a small growl. Mew may want to forget the incident, but Arceus had been known to hold grudges for several millennia. If Ash wasn't fond of the pink Legendary, Mew would've found out just how powerful a god's aura spheres were.

Sensing the hostility, Mew quickly floated away to her seat.

The second and third Legendaries that appeared were Lugia and Ho-Oh. The giant bird landed on her respective roost and Lugia chose to curl up in a black spot. Seeing this, Ash and Arceus walked to the head of the room and waited for the rest. The other Legendaries continued to pop out and went to their seats, like Celebi, Raikou, Suicune, Entei, Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres, Darkrai—

_"Hey__,__ Arceus__,__"_ Ash whispered, snapping her from her thoughts, _"__w__hy are they staring at me like that?"_ True to his words, many of the Legendaries were staring at him out of curiosity, awe, and shock. After all, it's not every day one gets to see two Arceus in the same spot.

_"Ignore them for the time being, Ash. They will know who you are shortly__,__"_ Arceus responded back. Ash had a resigned look on his face but nodded. He changed his gaze to see the familiar Legendaries he had met years ago on some of his many journeys.

He looked at the ever-playful Mew, secretive Ho-oh (considering she never directly contacted him), nice Latias, the badass Zekrom, and four other Legendaries he didn't recognize. Ash gave a small smile to Latias, which she replied to with a slight blush. Arceus was a bit jealous, but she did a good job of hiding it.

The rest of the Legendaries eventually came from all regions; even Mewtwo arrived. Arceus stepped up to the raised pedestal at the end of the room, elevating herself above the others. She began the meeting in the most formal, boring way she possibly could . . .

. . . by having everyone bow to her.

'_This is so cliché__d . . .__' _Ash thought to himself.

"_Now," _Arceus spoke up, _"I have gathered you all here for some rather important news, and before you ask__:__ Yes, it does concern our little friend right here." _She nodded towards Ash.

Reshiram spoke up in response.

_"Lord Arceus, if I may ask__ . . .__who is that? Could we at least have a name?" _Reshiram asked, surprisingly with a feminine tone. Well, surprising to Ash. . . .

_"He was__—__or still is, for I cannot be certain__—__the Chosen One." _A shocked silence hung around the room as all the Legendaries gaped in shock. There was a human who could turn into a Pokémon, and a Shiny Arceus to be precise. It was unheard of, and it could be considered a taboo to some.

_"Wait, Ash?!" _all of the Legendaries shouted in an astonished union. Some of them were shocked speechless, while others had a flicker of anger and a tinge of jealousy. Some seemed to be relieved and happy for the teen. They all mixed together in a chaotic mess of emotions; Arceus wasn't sure whose were whose.

After dragging himself out of the corner that he was hiding in, Ash gave a hesitant and slightly fearful _"Hello?" _Most could recognize the voice instantly, and they all had different reactions to what Arceus had said being verified. Lugia happened to have the most extreme reaction.

"_Where are the cowards that would do such a thing to you? I will rip them apart piece by piece and feed their entrails to their Pokémon!" _Lugia uncurled himself from his position and drew up to his full height of seventeen feet, causing Ash to back away from the enraged Legendary in fear.

"_Umm, they're dead. I killed them all __. . .__" _Ash said bluntly. After that, Lugia promptly calmed down, knowing that there was nothing else he could do about the situation. Instead of going back to where he was lying, Lugia decided to _thunk _himself down right next to the Shiny Arceus.

Ash stared at him for a bit, wondering if the concept of killing a human was as repulsive to Lugia as it was to him. Looking at the large, dragon-like Pokémon, he decided that based off of his earlier outrage, Lugia wouldn't hesitate to kill one at all.

"**It's ASH!" **Latias squealed, flipping around in circles. **"See, I knew he was alive!" **The Lati's comment seemed to be the tipping point of the scale, and the whole room broke into chaos. The Legendary birds were flying everywhere; the Legendary dogs were brawling just for the heck of it. The Swords of Justice had abandoned ship, and the rest were doing who knows what.

"_Enough__ . . .__" _Arceus's quiet voice seemed to tear through the chaos._"Why are we fighting like newborns over a matter that we have no control over? The only ones that remained calm were Lugia and Ash, two of probably the most impulsive beings here. I'm ashamed of every single one of you."_

She glared at each one in turn, making them shrink back in shame. Noticing that the Swords of Justice were gone, she forcibly teleported them in front of her.

"_You four are the biggest disgrace of them all. Abandoning the meeting when you were obviously not supposed to__—__horrifying." _They shrank backwards in fear of what Arceus could do to them. Arceus turned to Ash, only to see Latias hugging his neck fiercely, looking like letting go was the last thing on her mind.

She stamped her hoof once and growled. _"Get off of him this instant!" _she snarled.

Everyone was surprised by Arceus's sudden outburst. Never—_NEVER__—_in their life had they ever seen Arceus snarl at someone like that. Most of the older Legendaries shifted uneasily. They remembered the last time Arceus lost her temper, and it wasn't pretty. She almost knocked out the solar system, and the balance of the world had been corrupted for years after.

They all shuddered.

Latias, noticing the glare, quickly released him and apologized. **"Sorry ****. . .****"** she mumbled before flying back to her spot. However, she suddenly stopped mid-flight. **"Umm, can Ash turn into his human form?"**

_"Umm __. . .__n__o, I can't. Arceus said that it was too advanced for me. So __. . .__ yeah__,__"_ Ash replied with a shrug. Everyone went silent and stared in shock. Latias glared at Arceus while the Alpha Pokémon stared right back with a façade of indifference.

The rest of the Legendaries shouted out of disbelief. A lot stared at Arceus is confusion; others shouted at her for tricking their chosen; the rest ignored it, believing it out of their influence. Arceus let this persist for a few seconds before shutting it down.

"**ENOUGH!"**she roared into the room, causing many of the pillars to shake by using Aura to enhance her voice.

They quickly quieted down, but Latias spoke up, **"Why are you doing this, Arceus?! How come you didn't teach him the easiest trick that every one of us here ****can****pull off?! Are you trying to prevent him ****from**** continuing his journey?!"**

Ash stared in shock, then whispered, **"Arceus ****. . .**** is that true?" **He looked at her with betrayal in his eyes, thinking yet again that one of his friends betrayed him.

**"Well****. . .**** I think it's obvious that she didn't want him to leave because he wasn't ready yet. You know how Ash is****,****" **Mew stated, trying to break the tense air. Arceus gave Mew a slight smile of gratitude, knowing that she may have just saved her dignity.

_"Yes, like what Mew said, you're not ready to face the world again. Now that you are __a L__egendary, your aura has been substantially increased to the point that most things near you can sense you__,__ and who knows what creatures could come after you?"_

Ash wanted to argue, but seeing that she was just doing it to protect him, he couldn't help but to agree with her decision. He knew how rash he was at times—he would probably get himself killed. However, the tense mood in the room was reawaked when Ho-Oh decided to provide one of her comments.

**"Wasn't the reason because you didn't want to be left alone, and you loved him?" **the large bird drawled on in a monotone.

Most of the Legendaries stared at Ho-Oh and Arceus in surprise, Ho-Oh because that was the first comment she made and it was rather sudden and abrupt, Arceus because they wanted to see her reaction to the aforementioned "statement."

Ho-Oh started to preen her feathers as Arceus stared at her in mortification, a small blush rising to her face. That was all the Legendaries needed to prove Ho-Oh's comment right, and a lot had smug looks on their faces. Finally, Arceus spoke up.

"_What would you do if you have been alone, truly alone__,__ for the whole of your life? Most of that time you have been forced to take care of several 'children' and the exhausting sport of being an enforcer. And one day, someone who will not flinch when you talk to them, someone who you can talk to normally without fear of the repercussions, someone who might keep you company comes along._

"_The real question is__: W__ho do you turn to__?__W__ho do you confide all of your deepest secrets in, your deepest fears__, w__hen you have no one but yourself to talk to__?__Now you may call me selfish for wanting a momentary respite from all the chaos, but is it really selfish if you know nothing better?"_

The hall lay in a stunned silence, but it was eventually broken by grins and the loud sound of Lugia "clapping."

"**Well, that was a nice long way of telling us that you love him and you wouldn't change anything. I totally agree and wish you two luck on your relationship!" **Lugia halted his clapping and disappeared from the room with the loud snap of teleportation.

"_Good luck catching her, Ash!" _Reshiram and Zekrom both chimed together, disappearing in a style similar to Lugia's in uncanny synchrony.

The rest of the Legendaries each said something along the lines of the previous one's comments and disappeared from the room, leaving Arceus's face to get redder and redder as more and more Legendaries added their approval of their relationship.

The last one was Latias as she was silently talking to Ash where Arceus could not overhear her. The smile that was slowly growing across his face struck Arceus as a bad omen. She morbidly wondered just what Latias was telling him. Hopefully not something sexually explicit. . . .

Latias giggled and shot Arceus one look, then disappeared from the room.

"_Well, at least we don't have anyone that will dislike us hanging around the other__.__" _Ash laughed slightly while Arceus stared at him. When had he started acting like that?

"_You're already thinking about the two of us in a relationship?" _she managed to choke out as she reversed the room to its previous state. Ash laughed once more.

"_Well, to be honest it's kind of hard not to, considering everyone was just shoving it in our face a few minutes ago__.__" _Ash's voice then took on a more serious air. _"Let's just deal with this as it comes, Arceus. There's no need to try to rush things out of our control."_

Arceus nodded hesitantly, fearing that if she said something it would betray her and make it even more embarrassing. She let out a large sigh and retired to her room to try to get her head around all that had happened.

* * *

It has been five years since Ash got introduced to the Legendaries. He spent every single moment of that time training. Muscles now rippled under his coat; he was sure-footed and no longer stumbled or walked cautiously; his frame was broader and his ribs no longer showed themselves when using his human form: they had instead been replaced by a thick layer of muscle.

For every single one of those years, he worked with the Legendaries on everything that he possibly could and learned as much as he could in that period of time. He may even be considered more powerful than Arceus herself, and she didn't like that.

Ash's personality had steadily grown darker along with the passing of years. He didn't hesitate to hurt any of the Legendaries when training, nor did he hesitate to severely injure or kill Pokémon that attacked him out of the blue. He was occasionally inconsiderate towards others and pulling the world, occasionally literally out from under very egotistical people became one of his favorite hobbies.

Along with the maturing over the years, puberty had hit him hard (insert groan here). It was a massive slap in the face to the life he had been living but a few years ago. No one really knows what happened with his emotions, but it seemed he could become infatuated with a Pokémon or human. He seemed to be leaning towards his Pokémon side, but there was still human emotions trying to mess everything up.

He was fiercely protective of Arceus, enough that it was beginning to be too much, instead of the occasional bout of anger. He toned it down when he was told that he wasn't helping anyone, or more specifically, her. There was still the potential that he could blow up when someone managed to hurt Arceus even the slightest.

Currently, he was in a standoff against Mewtwo and the Legendary Beasts, fighting in one of the many massive training fields that were scattered around the Hall of Origin. Ash stood at the ready in his Arceus form, expecting pretty much anything to come from his opponents.

Not one of the competitors blinked, not one muscle moved, not one ability fired until Ash's right eye twitched in annoyance. That was when things really started to kick off. Mewtwo took the chance that his eye twitching might give him the advantage; unfortunately, it did not.

Mewtwo launched himself towards Ash with an impressive Extreme Speed, forming a large ball of psychic energy at the forefront of himself, making it look like he was an arrow.

He was across the field in milliseconds, but Ash was faster, much faster.

The Shiny Arceus's form fizzled out of existence and let the bipedal Legendary skid on by, trying to hit the empty air where Ash had been. Ash himself had only moved a few feet to the left, but that was enough to throw Mewtwo off balance.

All three of the Legendary Beasts attacked simultaneously, throwing an impressive display of ice, fire, and electricity powers towards Ash. This all proved redundant when Ash simply stamped his right foreleg, erecting a massive rock wall that all of the attacks exploded against.

He dropped flat to the ground as one of Mewtwo's shadow balls sailed over his head, letting the wall fall with him. The ball kept going and almost hit Suicune.

Ash decided that it was time to go on the offensive

A massive snowstorm picked up around Ash, debris and other objects being sucked up into it as it turned into a blizzard, making sure that no one could see anything on the field. All the Legendary Beasts had to brace themselves against the relentless winds, while Mewtwo simply surrounded himself in a ball of psychic energy and let the storm bounce off of it.

He waded through the blizzard, waiting for Ash to show himself, to do anything; surprisingly, nothing came. The massive snowstorm, which was dismal in comparison to the ones Ash used to practice storm control with, suddenly died out.

The air cleared and the winds stopped, not even leaving one speck of white behind from the blizzard. Once everyone's eyes cleared and they managed to figure out what Mewtwo seemed so baffled about, the eyes of everyone in the arena widened.

Ash was gone.

Nothing showed that he had been in the middle of a blizzard recently; nothing pointed to any clues revealing where he might have run off to; nothing made any sense. The Legendaries that were fighting Ash all huddled into the middle, looking like they had experienced this before.

"I thought he agreed not to do this anymore," Mewtwo whispered quietly in the middle. "The sly bastard . . ."

Entei nodded. "Why did we agree to do this . . . this 'training' as Ash likes to call it?" he hissed in a gruff baritone.

"Because you two idiots decided that teaming up on him would be easy. I told you that he's more powerful than Arceus, but no—you decided that you and Raikou wanted to do this!" Suicune growled. "And I couldn't leave you two alone to get your asses handed to yourselves. I have to keep you two from bickering or else—"

"Wait!" Mewtwo suddenly held out his palm. Everyone in the practice arena froze. "I think he's about to strike—too late!"

Out of the shadows cast from their very own forms, Ash seemed to form half out of them and grabbed Entei; he proceeded to throw him against the nearest wall. Entei hit the wall with a loud cracking sound that seemed to do more harm to the wall than Entei, until the Legendary Beast realized just how high he had been flung.

"_One down, three to go__.__"_A voice chuckled mischievously in everyone's heads. Mewtwo grew extremely angry and stamped his right leg against the ground, causing a shockwave of psychic energy to spiral out from it.

"I thought you said you wouldn't use your shadow powers," he accused, "or your nightmare powers, or your ground powers, or break any bones, or levitate, or . . ." Mewtwo droned on and on about how many things Ash was banned from doing, and everyone's eyes eventually started to glaze over. "Point is," he continued, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE SHADOWS!"

"_As you wish,"_ Ash replied, stepping out of the shadows cast by the wall behind Mewtwo. _"Though must I keep reminding you not to curse in front of me?" _He glared at the darker pink Legendary for a few seconds. Mewtwo only scoffed and spat onto the ground.

"We'll see" was all the warning that he gave before launching himself at Ash. The Arceus in question only stood stoically in front of Mewtwo's attack. At the last moment, Ash spun around and rudely kicked Mewtwo in the face with his two hind legs, knocking him over and away from Ash. The Shiny Arceus walked over to stand over Mewtwo's form.

"_Aww, are you tired? Perhaps you would like to take a nap? I'm sure Mew would love to sing you to sleep!" _Ash said, mocking the Legendary under him. Mewtwo's only rebuttal was to punch Ash solidly in the face, causing him to step back several steps.

Ash spat blood out on the ground by Mewtwo's feet as the dark pink Legend backflipped into a standing position. Then Ash grinned, looking like a psychopath with the blood running from his mouth and a smile that came straight from a horror movie. The extremely pointed teeth of an Arceus didn't help.

"_There's the spirit that you're known for! Now we can actually fight!" _Ash grinned even more, knowing that he had probably just tipped Mewtwo over the edge of self-control. A sane person would've probably fled by now, but Ash wasn't the sturdiest rock in the vicinity.

Mewtwo let out a cry of outrage and launched thousands of balls of psychic energy towards Ash, each the size of a small car. Every single one of them aimed in the general direction that Ash was. The Shiny Arceus simply stamped his hoof and erected a large wall of solid stone in front of himself, letting the ones that would've hit him to blow holes in the wall; he left the rest to blow up various parts of the training arena.

"You're using your earth powers—" Mewtwo was cut off as Ash smashed through the wall, letting the shards that broke off repurpose themselves as large bullets surrounding Ash. These shards flashed towards Mewtwo and forced him to dance to avoid the shards. By the time Ash ran out of ammunition, it dawned upon Mewtwo that Ash was standing right in in front of him.

"_Hello__" _was all Ash said before he knocked Mewtwo several miles across the arena with a powerful Aura Sphere, digging a large trench where Mewtwo slammed into the ground.

The two remaining Legendary Beasts glanced nervously at Mewtwo, realizing that they just missed their chance to team up on Ash and have a better chance at winning for once. Both shrugged and went in for close combat, surrounding Ash on both sides.

Ash's eyes flickered nervously from side-to-side and his knees started shaking noticeably. Both of the Legendary Beasts grinned and lunged at Ash, not even bothering to use any of their powers besides their claws and teeth. In their apparent victory, they had yet to notice that a smirk had grown across Ash's face, for he was as far from petrified as he possibly could be.

An instant before Suicune and Raikou landed on top of him, he turned and shot a massive Ice Beam right into Suicune's face. Then he ducked, letting the now solid form of Suicune crash into Raikou and pin him to the ground.

"Damn—didn't—when did you—get so fat?" The electric Legendary struggled, trying to push Suicune off of him before Ash could do anything. The Shiny Arceus had teleported miles away and was forming a small sphere that seemed to suck in all light from around it. Ash seemed to be molding it into a specific shape.

When Arceus saw what he was doing, she immediately panicked. "Everyone, get out NOW!" she snapped, looking over her shoulder at Ash. "Isn't that a bit overkill?" Ash just grinned and continued making his ball of . . . whatever.

The Legendaries watching quickly teleported out while Arceus simply stood and watched. She knew exactly what he was making; cleanup of the surrounding area had to be done, and the rest of the Legends would just pretend to be busy. So naturally, the task would fall to her.

Suicune finally managed to crack and get the ice off of her, freeing Raikou in the process. Both managed to get up, and Mewtwo silently joined them from nowhere. They were all perturbed at being taken down easily, but the thing that Ash was making held their interest.

Mewtwo jetted off towards Ash, intending to disrupt whatever he was making, but he was late. Far, far too late.

Ash only grinned as Mewtwo shot towards him and promptly released the ball. Nothing seemed to make sense with the little object. It seemed to move, yet it didn't. It was like the ball was staying still and the world was moving instead. Everything seemed drawn towards it: things were shattering off of the arena and getting sucked into the center. All the Legendaries, except the two Arceus, were no exception.

Mewtwo tried to pass it, but it dragged him back and eventually, after much struggling, pulled him into the center. If one looked closely, one could see a black field of emptiness surrounding it, making its area of influence larger than the ball.

When Mewtwo touched the centerpiece, he was immediately knocked out and just floated there, hovering along with the ball in its path towards the two remaining Legendary Beasts. Understandably, the two panicked.

"ASH! I told you NOT to try and summon a black hole until I told you that you could!" Arceus shouted from her position. It was in fact a black hole—a rather extensively modified one to make sure it didn't kill anyone or swallow the world. Arceus was rather fond of Earth.

When the conscious Legendaries heard this information, they immediately covered their heads with their paws and started chanting, "We surrender! We surrender!" in blind panic. Ash let the hole persist for a few more seconds, letting it get right up to the Legendaries and scaring the Distortion World out of them before dissolving it.

Mewtwo dropped to the ground in front of them with a heavy thump, remaining unconscious. Suicune and Raikou could only shake in fear as they stared dreadfully at Mewtwo's limp form. Ash ignored the two and continued out of the arena to sit by Arceus's side.

"There was something you wanted to talk to me about?" Ash inquired. Arceus hadn't said anything to him about that, but he had read her like an open book. The nervousness in her step, constantly shifting her weight from side-to-side, were all things that told Ash she was worrying about something.

One part of her was glad that he had noticed and came to her; another was wondering just how he would respond to this information.

"Do you know anything about Shadow Pokémon?" she asked. Ash frowned in concentration, clearly puzzled about what she had asked. He hesitantly shook his head.

"No . . . ?" Shadow Pokémon sounded evil, even more so than Team Rocket. Arceus sighed. She had hoped that he had picked up this information from where he managed to gather whatever random places he got all his ideas from.

"Shadow Pokémon, to put it simply, are a manifestation of all bad inside of the Pokémon. In order to become a Shadow Pokémon, you have to be infected by another. This"—a small holographic image of a Pidgeot appeared in front of Ash—"is a normal Pokémon. What I am about to show you is when one was infected."

The image changed. The Pidgeot didn't seem to be a Pidgeot anymore; rather, it was a sort of crossbreed. The bird Pokémon's ribs were showing, indicating famine. Its eyes were red and glossed over; several parts of its body seemed to have lost all motor movement, but that was not the most worrying thing about this Pokémon. Veins and lines of black traced all over its body, showing about as much organization as a web. The whole Pokémon seemed to glow with malicious intent.

Ash shivered slightly as Arceus continued. "Legendary Pokémon are affected differently than normal Pokémon; however, they are still very dangerous. When a Legendary is infected, as Lugia once was, their color scheme is simply replaced with purple and black colors. No degeneration of the mind and body is present.

"That means that when the virus fully takes over the Legendary's body, it is possible to cure them. Normal Pokémon, once they reach a certain point, cannot be ridden of this disease and have to be killed."

Ash did nothing but stare at Arceus for a few seconds. He tilted his head left in confusion.

"I understand why this was important, but why tell me this now?"

Arceus took a deep breath, preparing to break the worst of the news to him. She pawed the ground nervously.

"You know how all of your Pokémon are being kept at Professor Sycamore's lab?" Ash nodded apprehensively, a small bit of fear entering his eyes as he realized what track Arceus was heading down. "I'm afraid that . . ." She took another deep breath and stared Ash in the eyes. "There's been a breakout there and most of your Pokémon are infected. I'm not sure you can save many of them, but—"

Ash cut her off. "How do I cure them!?" Ash moved to face her, sitting uncomfortably close to Arceus's face. She moved her head slightly to the side, showing her displeasure at the violation of her personal space. Ash immediately noticed and backed off but did not drop the inquisitive look from his face.

"Either by making them open their hearts by making them trust you again or using a purification machine. Oak should have one. He's over at Sycamore's, isn't he?"

"I'm going. Right now." Ash had put on his determined face. Bad things happened when people got in his way when he was in that state of mind. Arceus just sighed—again. Nothing was stopping him; at least she could help him a little.

"Use your human form and Pokémon at least," Arceus called to him. Ash nodded to her in silent thanks and trotted off towards the room that contained his Pokémon. When he returned, he was using the illusions Latias and a resident Zoroark had taught him to use.

The ones that Latias used were based off of the user's current personality. If one was lacking sleep in his natural form, that would carry over onto the human form he was using. This could be changed and the user could look like whatever he wanted to, as the Zoroark had showed Ash, but it required intense concentration and patience—two things that Ash did not have at the moment.

Ash's human form looked haggard. He was no longer a little boy: instead, he was a teen that had seen the horrors of the world just a little too early. He stood at the impressive height of six feet, three inches, but he didn't seem to be that height. He had an impressive physique, but the muscles that showed through his skin were hidden behind a long-sleeved jacket that he was wearing.

Though he was a big person, he was slim. His ribcage seemed to show and his face was gaunt, as if he hadn't eaten anything in days. His hair looked like a black tumbleweed, nothing like its former messy glory. It no longer shined; he no longer looked like he had any confidence in himself. The only time the depression that haunted his features ever dropped was when he was battling.

Noticing this change in his posture when battling, they made him do it as often as he could.

He was wearing a simple black running jacket with gold inlayed seams, jeans, and simple flat-bottomed shoes. His face was uncovered, though Arceus noticed something rather different from what a human should look like.

"Your eyes are still red," she pointed out.

Ash snorted in amusement. "I'm sure that would go down well if I were to appear to anyone like that." He deadpanned, changing his eyes to a vibrant blue. They were the only thing that didn't look broken on him.

Both Arceus were interrupted by a loud voice from down one of the hallways.

"There's been a catastrophe! Sycamore's lab is being attacked . . . !" The Latios that appeared out of nowhere suddenly trailed off as he caught both Arceus and Ash staring directly at him. He cleared his throat nervously.

"We know," they said simultaneously. After conversing with Arceus for a bit more, Ash disappeared off with the Latios to go see what the problem was.

Arceus only lagged slightly behind the two males, making sure that Ash didn't forget anything vital in his rush to save his Pokémon. He knew that they had hurt him, but he still wanted to save them anyway. He had scars from them, yet he still considered them his friends.

* * *

Ash, Arceus, and Latios appeared again in front of Professor Sycamore's laboratory. Arceus muffled and suppressed her aura signature, using her power over illusions to keep herself unseen. Ash quickly muffled and suppressed his aura as well—he didn't want surrounding Pokémon to know who he was.

Professor Sycamore's Laboratory was a mess. Hundreds of dead and dismembered Pokémon were lying around like discarded trash. Ash wasn't sure how many Pokémon were infected, since the description wasn't always flush with what Arceus had told him. There were varying degrees of progression of the disease. Some Pokémon had the black marks encapsulating their whole body, while others only had it in a few spots.

Police officers and paramedics were wandering around, zipping up the corpses of the dead for a disposal unit to pick up. The landscape was painted red with the amount of lifeblood covering the area; no small amount of Pokémon entrails covered the ground like foliage.

As Ash watched, one of the Shadow Pokémon rose up onto its feet, somehow still standing with the amount of damage done to it. As Ash watched, the police pulled out their firearms and immediately gunned it down, not about to endanger their Growlithe.

Many reporters were interviewing the medical staff and police for information on what happened. Several Pokémon were wandering behind the perimeter police had set around the lab, relaxed and talking to each other and the officer's Arcanine.

Ash looked around, searching for Professor Oak and Sycamore until he was rather rudely knocked out of his thoughts.

"_MASTER!_" He was tackled to the ground by a black-red blur. Ash looked at the offender and found his Lucario staring happily back at him. Ash's Lucario was about six feet tall, which was strange since a Lucario's average height is about three feet or so. This Lucario also looked very powerful, Champion-level even. She also radiated aura, enough to make Pokémon rethink battling her. It was invisible to the naked eye, but anyone could sense it if they were close enough.

"L-Lucario, get off me!" Ash gasped, trying to regain the air he lost. Lucario was rubbing her cheek against Ash's face, both of them in quite an awkward position. Ash blushed a bit, sensing Arceus was starting to get agitated nearby. He could only hope that Arceus didn't do anything drastic.

Abruptly, Lucario was pulled away from him by a large Zoroark. Ash sighed in relief as he nodded towards his savior. "Thanks, Zoroark."

"_It was a pleasure,_" he heard a telepathic reply. Ash's Zoroark was about six-two with a very strong build. Like Lucario, he was an unusual size for a Zoroark. He looked extremely strong, probably even passing Champion-level.

People could easily guess his strength by the scars covering his body, not to mention the slash mark across his left eye, leaving him half blind. Let's just say the person who did that died a very brutal death at Ash's hand. Like Lucario, he seemed to radiate dark energy, feeding off of and influencing negative emotions of all surrounding him.

"_Papa, let me go!_" Lucario struggled. Ash got up from the ground and chuckled, giving the young Lucario a stern look.

"Right now is not the time for hugs, Lucy," Ash reprimanded, glancing towards the Zoroark. "Thank you, Delano."

Lucario—now known as Lucy—pouted. Delano released her but didn't let her out of his sight. "_Watch your attitude, Lucy. You don't want your mother and brother berating you again, unless __. . .__"_

Lucy shuddered, "_I know,_" she muttered.

Ash chuckled. He found an entire family of Lucario from the Lucario Kingdom, back when he was visiting them. He reunited with the same Riolu that he met years ago. Apparently, he had seven brothers and sisters, and he was the youngest brother. It didn't really help when the whole family decided to join Ash on his journey. Luckily, with all the time he had, he could train them all equally, and the results were outstanding. Now he has eight Champion-level Lucario and one Zoroark that's extremely powerful and commonly reinforcing the rules.

Arceus silently seethed in anger. She quietly slipped behind a building, still invisible to the naked eye. She looked around to make sure no one would walk in when she revealed herself. Seeing no one, she materialized herself and transformed into her human form.

Arceus was in fact Serena, but after many years and slight modifications to make her human form keep up with Ash's, she no longer looked like the rookie Trainer she started out as.

She was still wearing the outfit she was commonly found in, just slightly different. Her hair was no longer let down: it was contained in a long ponytail that draped down to the small of her back. Her hat was now black, but she still kept her sunglasses. Her clothing showed off her curves extravagantly, and she seemed to radiate an aura of power, making people shy away from her. Her posture had changed dramatically; a more serious, uptight personality had replaced her carefree one, yet she was still playful when the time was right.

She checked herself to see if there were any flaws on her human form. Seeing none, she jogged back towards Professor Sycamore's laboratory. Once she arrived and moved around to the front, she called out, "Ashy!"

Ash noticed that someone just called his nickname. There was only one creature who could call him "Ashy" and got away unscathed. He turned around and found himself getting a rather solid but affectionate punch to the shoulder. It may have been friendly, but damn it hurt!

"Was that really necessary?" Ash asked her, rubbing his abused shoulder. Arceus simply hummed in amusement, walking over to his side and leaning on Ash.

They may both act like a couple, and neither of them have denied the fact that they like each other, but they were not mates yet. They were just comfortable around each other. The Legendaries constantly teased Arceus and Ash about it, but they would wait until a better time to fall in love. Right now, it would only be a distraction.

"Ahem." Someone cleared their throat from over by the lab. They both quickly composed themselves. Ash lost his smile and replaced it with an emotionless mask, looking to their interloper.

"Oh, hello, Professor Oak," Ash greeted, a slight smile covering his face. True to his words, Professor Oak was standing nearby with his Latios floating respectfully next to him. Ash remembered how he caught Latios. It was when they went on a trip to Eon Village, where many Latios and Latias live together. Ash and Arceus took Professor Oak with them, since they needed help to index the Pokémon inside the village. Professor Oak found Latios about two kilometers away from the village, injured and hunted by Trappers. Ash and Arceus managed to defeat the Trappers, and Professor Oak managed to heal the Latios. After Latios fully recovered, he decided to join Professor Oak as his assistant of sorts. That event happened a year ago, soon after he found that his former friends killed Oak's Dragonite for sport.

"Hello, Satoshi, Serena," Professor Oak greeted them. The wizened professor always called him by his middle name, since Ash was dead, according to the government. Ash insisted he call him "Satoshi" for some odd reason. Arceus was nicknamed Serena Yvionne, and she prefer it to stay that way.

"Hi, Professor," Serena greeted him politely. She ignored the annoyed look that Lucy sent her; it did not concern her. Professor Oak smiled in response.

"Well then, Serena. I see you've heard of Latios's earlier panic attack," he said as Latios blushed a bit.

Ash shrugged. "He came to tell us about the attack. Serena just told me right before he came, and we've come here to check how you were doing," Ash stated, concerned about someone who he had been friends with since childhood.

Professor Oak waved his hand dismissively. "I am perfectly fine, and so is Professor Sycamore. The infected Pokémon are being tended to and healed by our Purify Chamber—"

"Is that the machine that can purify most Shadow Pokémon?" Ash suddenly interrupted. Professor Oak was drawn into his thoughts, thinking about it, but another voice answered before he could.

"Yes, yes it can," a voice echoed from the doors of the lab.

"Ah, Professor Krane, I thought you were waiting at the Chamber?" Professor Oak said as he moved away from the sight. Professor Krane was a young Pokémon Professor that looked to be a twenty-five-year-old man. He had brown hair with raven black streaks permeating the surface, extremely white skin, and black square prescription glasses. He wore a simple green T-shirt with brown jeans and a white lab-coat thrown over. He was wearing dress shoes for some odd reason.

'_These professors seem to have never heard of the word fashion,' _Ash mused to himself.

"Ah, you must be Satoshi. Professor Oak and Sycamore talk highly of you," the professor commented, offering his hand. Ash took his hand in a rather rough handshake.

"And you must be Professor Krane. I've heard that you were the one to build the Purifying Machine. I hear it's quite remarkable," Ash praised, watching amusedly as the professor seemed to swell with pride.

"Yes, yes, my creations are the greatest, but there is always a room for more improvement," Professor Krane boasted honestly. He released Ash's hand and looked to Professor Oak. "Anyway, where is Professor Hastings?"

"Professor Hastings is on his way here, along with Commander Solana," Professor Oak replied. "They want to study and observe the Shadow Pokémon we have captured. They seem to be different than the usual, according to them."

"Yes, indeed they are." Professor Krane looked towards the clouds thoughtfully. "These Shadow Pokémon are different than what I have encountered in the Orre Region. They have more distinguishing features, especially their eyes." He shuddered. "This was the first time the Shadow Pokémon crisis reached Kalos Region, not to mention just how different they are than normal Pokémon."

Professor Oak caught a glimpse of a Humvee coming their way. "There they are," he muttered to himself. The Humvee stopped right in front of them, and the door opened with the customary _thump_ of steel hitting a padded surface. Two people came from the car, padding their way towards them.

The first person was an old man, about seventy years old, maybe older, but he was very tall and did not slouch at all. He had white hair and eyebrows, along with a stereotypical professor mustache; a white beard that looked like a duct tape roll was comically hanging off of his chin. He was wearing a plain purple shirt and loose jeans, dress shoes, and a green and dark yellow cane.

The second person was a woman that had a strong yet lithe build that gave her a panther-like grace. She had light chocolate-colored skin and light brown hair; electric blue eyes seared out from her face, making Ash double-check if she was an aura user—she appeared to be. She was, well . . . endowed as well, seeming to have come straight out of a magazine. A bright yellow sleeveless shirt that was cut off just above her stomach showed off her six-pack, and ripped jeans covered her lower half. It was unusual even for a woman of her position to flaunt her assets like she didn't have a care in the world, yet the Pokémon Ranger crest was still placed on her left breast pocket.

Two pistols that looked to be USP Matches were slung lazily off of her belt on either side of her body, both in their respective holsters. The black leather jacket she was wearing probably held all sorts of concealed weapons; in fact, Ash could see another two holsters for something peeking out from the bottom. She had the customary fine-styler on her belt and a large knife, almost a machete, but not quite strapped to her combat boots.

_Who does she remind me of__? _Ash mused to himself. _Someone that goes by the name of Lara__.__. . ._He frowned as his mind refused to recall when and where that name came from. _She was from something that Ho-Oh was attempting to play, _Ash finally decided, then left it at that.

"Ah! You must be Satoshi!" A slight smile grew across the woman's face as she offered her hand. "Jackie told us a lot about you and your misadventures. As the Chief Commander of Ranger Union, we thank you for your help and collaboration in saving Manaphy from the Phantoms."

"Er . . ." Ash stuttered, blinking in surprise. He suddenly whipped his head around, checking to see if anyone had overhead her, scanning the area with his aura just to be safe. Finding no one within audible distance, he stared suspiciously at the woman. "How did you know who I am?" he asked as he accepted her handshake.

The woman laughed. "I was one of the people who helped you gain your new name," she said. Releasing her hand, she winked. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you," Ash muttered, mostly out of the necessity for politeness.

"Oh, where are my manners?" She chuckled lightly. "My name is Solana and I am the Chief Commander of the Ranger's Union in the Oblivia, Almia, and Fiore regions. As you probably guessed, I am an Aura User. This old man over here"—she gestured to the man next to her—"is Professor Hastings. He's the Ranger Union's Chief of Technology."

"Nice to meet you, Professor Hastings," Ash greeted as he offered his hand. "You may already know me, but I prefer to be called Satoshi in public."

"We understand your precaution, Mr. Satoshi," Professor Hastings calmly replied as he accepted the handshake.

Releasing his hand, Ash waved it dismissively. "No formalities, Professor, I prefer to be called Satoshi. Calling me Mr. Satoshi makes me feel old."

"You're immortal. You can't get old," Serena whispered innocently in Ash's ear.

"Shut up!" Ash quietly hissed. Luckily, no one heard the exchange between the two.

"Now that we are all here, why don't I show you the work that my research team and I have made on the Shadow Pokémon?" Oak offered. They turned their attention towards Professor Oak and the lab, curious expressions across their faces.

"It's what we came here for, right?" Hastings immediately replied, not liking having his time wasted by these useless questions.

"Right, follow me, gentlemen," Professor Oak said, nodding towards the lab.

Entering the decently sized white building, everyone immediately noticed several things about the lab area.

The inside of the laboratory was a chaotic mess. It looked no better than the outside of the building. There was blood splattered on the walls and several dismembered Shadow Pokémon lying on steel tables with their innards hanging out in a rather disorganized fashion.

Several Pokémon in the corner of the main room were caged, with the exception of the Growlithe guarding them. Those Pokémon had several bite marks on various places on their bodies, but other than that they were fine . . . seemed to be, at least.

Several Officer Jennies were wandering around, picking up the corpses that were deemed useless with their gloves or using their Psychic-type Pokémon if they owned them. Shadow Pokémon or not, they all went into the incinerator to be burned. There were far too many for even a mass grave. Others were taking pictures for their investigation; some were putting up _Do Not Cross_ lines in front of the main room. All other Pokémon were helping officers and medics alike.

"The conditions inside the lab are much worse than the bloodbath outside," Solana commented just as several telepathic shouts of "_Master!_" echoed through everyone's minds. Ash managed to cross his forearms and summon a blue aura shield right in front of him just before four black-blue blurs slammed right into him. They bounced back a few meters as they hit the powerful shield.

Ash laughed. "You girls need to work more on your reaction time," he said with a chuckle. The others gaped at his reaction. They realized that there were four Lucario standing in front of them, each wearing jackets and holding weapons. They also noticed that they all looked extremely strong and abnormally tall, pretty much similar to Lucy.

"_Don't worry, they're always like that,_" they heard another telepathic statement. They turned their attention towards the doors and found four other Lucario walking towards them. Like the others, they looked the same, with an exception of the Lucario on the middle-left. She looked like Delano's equal, or rival, if that matters.

"_Welcome back, Master__._" All the Lucario knelt and bowed down to Ash. The other humans, except Professor Oak and Krane, stared at Ash in shock.

"You own all of these Lucario?" Solana wondered in shock.

"Yep. Well, technically, I own these Pokémon, but these Pokémon are more like friends and family than me actually owning them." Ash nodded, agreeing with himself. "Guys, meet the, uh . . . Lucario family. This girl here is Aka—she's the mother or 'Memma' of all these Lucario and beloved mate of Delano." He gestured to the female Lucario on the middle-left.

Aka was about six-one, with a powerful build and strength to rival Delano's. She also had grey-blue eyes with slit pupils, which are unique for a Lucario. She was wearing blue open robes that seemed to glow with aura and an Aura Guardian hat that glowed the same tone. She was also wearing a Lucarionite as a necklace. A white-blue Aura Sword was slung on her back. "Just as a precaution, she can be easily offended, so try not to tease or offend her when talking," added Ash. "She's also very possessive, so try not to touch her belongings."

"This one is Wafiyyah." Ash gestured to another Lucario. From just his appearance, they could see that he was easily as powerful as Lucy. Wafiyyah had yellow-red eyes and stood at about five feet, nine inches tall. He was wearing fire-red chainmail armor with red-yellow plate armor on his thighs and fire-red gauntlets. Each piece of armor was faintly glowing with a Fire-type aura; slight heatwaves rolled off him. A red bandanna was wrapped around his head. Two Aura Swords were strapped to his back; each were faintly glowing an ice blue color with a red-fire aura dancing inside it.

Ash continued, "Wafiyyah is the most faithful one. He never gives up in battle until he has dropped unconscious or death has claimed him. He also has a formal attitude, so you should expect him calling you Mister or Miss."

"The next one here is Avyanna." Ash gestured to the next Lucario. This Lucario looked as powerful as the others. She had cold dark-red slit eyes, which looked quite intimidating and secretive to some. But to any male Pokémon, she looked both very beautiful and extremely powerful. She was about six feet tall and wearing a night black hoodie, which was strange since her chest spike wasn't visible or damaging the jacket in any way. The jacket was glowing with dark aura, which is even stranger since Lucario are proficient with justice and light. She also had a black Aura Dagger on her left waist and a black Aura Pistol that resembled a Glock 18 on her right waist. She also held an emotionless expression, but her eyes held curiosity and excitement. Ash continued, "Avyanna here is quite secretive. She has a habit sneaking up on people and isn't quite a talker, so don't be surprised if she gives short responses when answering questions."

"And the next one here is Aderes," Ash said as he pointed to the other Lucario. Aderes also looked powerful, like the others. She had light blue-white slit eyes along with a smile brighter than the sun. She was about six feet, one inch tall. She was wearing light blue-and-white camo robes with light blue armor on her chest. A light blue gauntlet was wrapped around her arm and an Aura Guardian hat sat on her head. Additionally, she was holding a light blue bow in her hands. A huge pair of light blue Aura Wings spread from her back. Ash continued, "Aderes is the most protective one and possibly the most annoying one, so please, just bear with her."

"_Oi!_" Aderes pouted. Ash just ignored her. "And the next one here is Acanit," he said as he pointed to the next Lucario.

Acanit also looked powerful like the others. He had blue-purple slit-pupil eyes with a bright smile plastered on his face. He was about five feet, eight inches tall. He was wearing blue-purple Aura Guardian robes along with a hat. Additionally, he had a blue Aura Staff with a claw-like topping that looked like it was holding a purple orb. Ash continued, "He was the youngest brother of all the Lucario family. I met him back when I was on a journey around the Sinnoh region years ago. Then I met him again back in Lucario Kingdom years ago; then his entire family decided to join me, so yeah."

"And this is Irina," Ash said as he pointed to the next—and last—Lucario. Irina also looked powerful, like the others. She was tall, about six-one. She was wearing green long-sleeve chest armor along with the leggings and gauntlets. She had a green shield on her left arm and a green Aura Sword on her back. Ash continued, "Irina is the oldest Lucario of our family. She likes to help scientists and people around.

"And, uh . . ." Ash gave them a strange look. "Why do you still have all your weapons out? Isn't the battle already over?"

"_Yeah, you missed the whole party, Master,_" Aya said, amused. "_We are still being cautious. There is a possibility they might attack again._"

"I see . . ." Ash muttered. Then he pointed to the people behind him. "Guys, this is Solana and Professor Hastings. You guys probably met Professor Krane already, so . . . yeah . . ." Ash ended with an awkward shrug.

"Moving on," Professor Oak muttered as the whole group begin walking to another room.

As they entered the next room, they found it to be a rather spacious lab. They could see many professors and assistants wandering around the place. Unlike the others, this room looked bright and clean. Many professors and their assistants were using the laboratory equipment around, some were carrying caged Pokémon, and others were using the computers. There were also several big, strange glass tubes around the corner, connected to the big machine next to it. The machine itself looked square, with a console on a power cable coming from the left corner.

Ash could also see several Pokémon inside several strange tubes. Each of them was not in the best condition; all of them were not in the best condition in the world. Some of the Pokémon were marred with several bites on their bodies, indicating that the Shadow Pokémon in their earlier onslaught bit it.

As Ash watched, the professor clicked a button under an empty tube and it slid open. The assistant next to the professor grabbed a caged infected Pokémon, opened it, and quickly threw the Pokémon into the tube.

After that, the professor clicked the button again, closing the tube. He pressed a button next to it and the inside of the tube was suddenly enveloped in a bright light. After the light died down, the infected Pokémon turned into a normal Pokémon. Not even a bite mark could be seen on its body. The professor opened the tube and the Pokémon jumped on him, rubbing its face on the professor's.

As they walked over to the tubes, Professor Hastings spoke up, "It looks like the makeshift Purifying Chamber works well."

"Yes, indeed." Professor Krane nodded eagerly. He stopped everyone in front of a nasty-looking infected Chespin contained within a glass chamber. It had several bite-marks on its body, and unlike the others its body color was dark yellow. Several major veins in its neck were bulging a purple color, indicating that it was about halfway infected with Shadow Pokémon disease.

"This is an example of the new shadow Pokémon, but before I tell you more about this, I need to explain the previous Shadow Pokémon that only exist in Orre region," Krane told them, obviously excited about discovering something.

"In the Orre region, Shadow Pokémon are not born from a disease. It is a term for a Pokémon who has its heart closed. In other words, it has lost its reason to have friends and family. Wild Shadow Pokémon are extremely violent and will not hesitate to kill their victim; however, nothing about its appearance changed, with the exception of a dark aura surrounding it. It is still stronger than any normal Pokémon. If a Trainer captures any of those Pokémon, there is a chance that the Shadow Pokémon will attack their own Trainer.

"Shadow Pokémon also always have a move that allows them to infect others, such as Shadow Claw, Shadow Bite, and Shadow Beam; however, these infections can be prevented or slowed with how strong their friendship is with their friends and family," Professor Krane explained to them. "These kinds of Shadow Pokémon can be easily cured, but the purifying speed depends on how much their heart has been closed. Shadow Pokémon can be cured by increasing their friendship with their own Trainers. This was the most dangerous way to heal Shadow Pokémon but also the most efficient and cheapest way. The more their hearts are closing, the harder for them to return to their former selves.

"The other way to purify those Shadow Pokémon is to purify them inside the Purifying Chamber. We have developed a free-to-use and instant Purifying Chamber for our people in the Orre Region, so they can purify them immediately once they have been caught. Also, once a Shadow Pokémon has been cured, it can never turn into a Shadow Pokémon ever again.

"However, this shadow Pokémon is a different case," Professor Krane said as he gestured toward the Shadow Chespin. The Shadow Chespin seethed before clawing viciously at the glass that was between it and Professor Krane, trying to attack him.

"This Shadow Pokémon is not the usual Shadow Pokémon. You can say that this case is more like an infection, a disease that could cause a pandemic. Unlike the previous Shadow Pokémon, these _infections_ spread to their body like a virus. They still can be cured with any Purifying Chamber or by increasing their friendship. This also still can be prevented with the power of friendship and kinship; however, unlike previous Shadow Pokémon, this disease will close their heart and mind, completely preventing them from forming any rational thought.

"Unlike the previous Shadow Pokémon, they have completely lost their ability to use any kind of normal Pokémon attack; instead, they can only use close-range Shadow attacks like Shadow Claw, Shadow Cut, and Shadow Bite. They are also slightly weaker than previous Shadow Pokémon, but only by a small margin, and they are still far more powerful than a normal Pokémon. They have also been seen to attack in packs," Professor Krane droned on. "These Shadow Pokémon cannot be cured once they have reached the final stage of infection, which will occur a minimum of seven days after being infected, maybe less. The infection spread-speed depends on how the attack is hit. Let's say if your Pokémon got a small bite from a fully infected Shadow Pokémon, it has at least two months for the infection to completely spread through its body, but after several Shadow Claws and bites to the head and vital organs, it has maybe three days. Also, purifying this Pokémon with the Purifying Chamber is highly recommended, since choosing the friendship path to purify them is highly unlikely and very difficult."

"So these Pokémon cannot be cured if they are . . . fully infected by this new strain?" Professor Hastings asked him.

Professor Krane nodded. "Yes, if a fully infected Shadow Pokémon was put into a Purifying Chamber, their body would be destabilized and explode . . . I mean, _literally_ explode into dozens of pieces. We can assume that this was caused by the rejection of the Purifying Energy the Purifying Chamber injects into the Shadow Pokémon. In other words, the only way to help your Pokémon once it has been fully infected with this disease is to put it out of its misery," he finished in a somber tone.

Everyone had different reactions to this statement. Ash didn't change his blank expression, though he raised his eyebrow a little; Serena looked shocked; Solana hardened her expression; Professor Oak had taken a somber expression; and Professor Hastings looked thoughtful. Ash decided to break the silence.

"So, they're basically like a zombie, right? Does this virus also affect humans? Do you have something to track the virus's progress, and have you named it yet?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, they often attack in groups, but most of them are extremely fast. No, yes, and yes." Professor Krane looked at the ceiling, thinking about the last question. "I call this virus SD Type 2, or SD-2 for short. SD stands for Shadow Pokémon, and Type 2 because it is the second strain of the disease. This tracks the progress of it." He frowned, fumbling with something in his pocket.

Professor Krane pulled out a black device that looked similar to a small tablet from his lab coat pocket. "This phone has been modified to have the same function as a Pokédex and communication device; however, unlike a Pokédex, this device allows you to scan detailed information about Pokémon, like their disease, level, and available moves. It is also able to scan and identify any Pokémorphs and hybrids. This device uses the International Pokédex Database, so it is able to identify every single Pokémon around the world. I called it the P-Dex."

Ash raised a skeptical eyebrow as Professor Krane pointed the P-Dex at the Shadow Chespin. The P-Dex dinged as it showed a picture of a Chespin. Then, it spoke in a familiar feminine tone: _**"Pokémon Detected. Scanning **__**. . . **__**International Pok**__**é**__**dex Number 650: Chespin. The Spiny Nut Pokémon. Chespin can flex the soft spikes on its head, making them so stiff and sharp, they can even pierce through stone. This Pokémon is male. This Pokémon has Overgrow Ability. This Pokémon is level 5. This Pokémon is one foot, four inches and weighs nine kilograms. This Pokémon is **__**six**__** months old. This Pokémon knows Tackle and Shadow Bite. This Pokémon has been owned by Professor Sycamore for **__**six**__** months. Warning**__**—**__**this Pokémon has been infected with the **__**v**__**irus SD-2: fifty-four percent **__**s**__**pread. Please take precaution approaching it."**_

This was met with varying degrees of awe within the small group that had never seen the device in action before. Professor Hastings frowned. "Hmm . . . the voice is too low. I can barely hear it, even when it was close to me."

Ash ignored that comment and grinned slightly. "Could I see it, Professor? I would like to see the capabilities of it."

"Sure thing." Professor Krane nodded. He offered the P-Dex to Ash, and he picked the device up. He pointed the P-Dex to the Chespin; however, unknown to him, he accidently used the P-Dex in reverse. Instead, it scanned him.

"_**Polymorphic Pokémorph detected. Scanning **__**. . .**__** warning**__**—**__**Pokémorph species is unknown. This Pokémorph is male. Pokémorph abilities unknown. Level unknown. Pokémon size unknown. Pokémorph age unknown. Pokémorph move base unknown. Error detecting ownership. Warning**__**—**__**this Pokémorph has been infected with the virus SD-2: one hundred percent infected. Please take precaution approaching it. This Pokémorph also infected permanently with the disease Pokérus: one hundred percent infected. Warning**__**—**__**this Pokémorph is immensely powerful; please take extreme precaution when approaching it."**_

"Umm . . ." Ash frowned as he stared at the P-Dex screen. It showed an upside-down blue question mark in the center, indicating that it was confused and upside-down. Ash looked to Professor Krane, who was staring at him in shock. "Why did it say Pokémorph instead of Pokémon? Or rather, why didn't it give different information about this Chespin when I pointed at it?"

"S-Satoshi . . ." Serena spoke up, hesitantly, "You're using the P-Dex the wrong way. It scanned you instead of the Chespin in front of you."

Ash suddenly paled. "Oh . . . why did this thing identify me as a Pokémorph?"

"Well, you actually are a Pokémorph, Satoshi," Professor Oak verified, looking around for any eavesdroppers. There was no one in the lab except them. All the Pokémon had already finished being purified, and the only Pokémon that hadn't been purified was the Shadow Chespin. He could assume that the rest of the professors and assistants were busy fixing the broken laboratory outside.

Professor Oak finally continued, "To be more specific, you're a Polymorphic Pokémorph, a human or Pokémon that can transform itself mostly by will into a human or Pokémon. You still have a tiny bit of human blood in you, regardless of the fact that you transformed. If you didn't have this very small bit of blood, it would recognize you as a Pokémon."

"A Pokémorph . . ." Professor Krane said breathlessly. "This is the first time I've seen a Pokémorph before . . . an unknown Pokémorph, even."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. The P-Dex says that Satoshi here is fully infected with the SD-2 Virus and Pokérus. Why isn't he attacking us? I didn't detect any dark essences coming from him, though now that I double-check, it could've been hidden behind that shield. But I doubt that, because his current body looks relatively normal." Solana threw Ash a questioning look as Serena sighed.

"Well . . . I guess this cannot be prevented," she muttered to herself.

"_So, how long are you going to hide that fact, 'Satoshi'?_" Aya smiled at Ash, trying to provoke him at least a little.

"Let me explain how this came to be," Serena broke the startled silence and drew everyone's gazes onto her. She paused thoughtfully before continuing. "Before I get any deeper into that problem, let me explain some things that Professor Krane left out about the SD-2 Virus."

"Who're you, trying to explain things to us?" Professor Hastings snorted; however, his sneer didn't last long after receiving hardened glares from twelve individuals. Professor Hastings gulped and backed off a little, lifting his hands above his head in a placating gesture. Out of the Lucario family—Oak, Serena, and Ash—Ash's gaze was the most terrifying one. Those icy blue eyes of his seemed to bore into his very soul, ripping it apart and burning the leftovers.

Ash nodded, satisfied. "Now, since there will be no more interruptions"—he pointedly glared at Hastings—"let us hear Serena's explanation." He smiled and turned towards Serena. She just sighed and shook her head slowly, eventually continuing after she was done musing over the recent events.

"First, what is Pokérus?" Everyone but Ash blinked at that statement, wondering just where she was going with this. Professor Oak was the first to answer.

"Pokérus is a disease that affects a Pokémon's mental and physical state. It can increase the amount the Pokémon learns from training; however, it tends to lead them to become smarter than any other Pokémon without the disease. There has been some cases that a Pokémon affected with Pokérus left their Trainer because they found him unworthy. Occasionally, the infected Pokémon has attacked their own Trainer because the Trainer was too stubborn to notice and immediately release the Pokémon.

"Those issues aside, Pokérus is actually useful in a Pokémon's training and research," Professor Oak continued his lecture. "They could make your Pokémon become smarter and smarter by the day and eventually reach a human level of intelligence, or even further, rivalling that of an Alakazam's thought speed and intelligence. Then they can become even more intelligent, regarding how long the Pokérus infects them. Aside from that, Pokérus is also able to increase the Pokémon's learning and stamina capacity, allowing them to train even beyond expectations. They could endure extremely harsh training, training becoming two times more efficient on top of that.

"However, like many other diseases-become-blessings, Pokérus also has its own disadvantages. It can only survive about three to six hours outside of a host. It could survive longer if it was close to the host or carrier. Finding a Pokémon with Pokérus is harder than finding a Shiny, and it can only survive about six to twelve days in a host. An example of a Pokérus host and carrier is Satoshi here." Professor Oak gestured to Ash.

"Pokérus can affect Pokémon, Pokémorphs, and also hybrids. They also treat the infected the same as normal Pokémon. It is usually spread by air, blood, and touch, with the exception of direct Pokémon Attacks, like flu; however, once a Pokémon is cured from Pokérus, they cannot be infected with it again. Pokérus cannot infect humans. There is also the fact that all but point-one percent of the Pokémon population are resistant and immune to it, so you have nothing to worry about. Although Pokérus can still spread to them, it'll take months, if not years, for the virus to latch onto the Pokémon's body. Depends on the host's condition and how strong they are."

"Although it could be troublesome to have a smart Pokémon around," Solana muttered, but she eventually smiled, "it would be fun to have a smart Pokémon as a friend and companion."

Serena nodded, "Now, I will explain more about the SD-1 Virus. When Team Cypher turned a Pokémon into a Shadow Pokémon, they also mixed a vial of Pokérus with the virus, mutating it into something more violent and harmful. They didn't use the actual Pokérus because that virus could become extremely unstable if something was modified, even if it was the tiniest thing that was removed or added."

Serena paused for a moment to let the information sink in. "Team Cypher only created the virus to close Pokémon's hearts; however, the virus was very unstable and required something to keep it temporarily stable. The scientists thought of this, and they used part of the Pokérus virus to stabilize it, and thus created the current SD-1 Virus that we know now."

"I wonder . . . where did you get all this information? I only heard this from interrogating Team Cypher's scientists," Solana muttered.

Serena smiled, giving a small wink. "I have my ways. You'll never know what's going on out there until it's too late. Now about the SD-2 Virus. To put it simply, SD-2 is a mutation of SD-1."

"WHAT?!" Professor Krane and Hastings both exclaimed.

"How? Our latest experiments and research said that it was impossible for the virus to mutate," Professor Oak enquired, an incredulous look spreading across his face.

"Then you're doing it wrong, Professor Oak," Serena answered happily. "How did it mutate? That's an interesting question. Tell me, Professors, how many of you know of the Missingno. incident 250 years ago?"

That sentence sent chills down their spines. Of course they remembered the Missingno. incident. Something that had tried to entirely swallow the Pokémon world was kind of hard to forget. It was lucky that they created a machine in time to destroy Missingno. from further damaging the world. It almost swallowed up fifty percent of the world's population before the scientists decided to put an end to it. They forever cursed the thoughtless people who had the "bright" idea to capture a Missingno. from a different dimension and release it into this world.

"Who doesn't?" Professor Oak looked slightly frightened, fear lacing his tone.

Serena nodded. "As I recall, after the Missingno. was destroyed, it left a stain on the world that allowed Pokémon to mutate. This is the reason why a Carbink could mutate into a Diancie."

"Wow . . . I always wondered how Diancie mutated. It seems that the Missingno. incident left something upon its defeat," Professor Oak mused.

Serena nodded again, eager to get to the point. "Now, the same works with the SD-2 Virus. This virus managed to evolve and mutate from the usual SD-1. The first one's characteristics are much easier to understand than the SD-2 Virus. The SD-1 Viruses are always carrying genetic material to replicate themselves and to 'close their heart.' They also carry the modified Pokérus Strain inside the genetic material to make Pokémon. It infects ten percent stronger than usual Pokémon; however, unlike any usual virus, the lipid that enveloped the protein coat that protects those genes isn't actually enveloped for protein. Instead, it actually _mixed_ with the protein."

"How is that possible? It's not possible for a protein to mix with a lipid membrane." Professor Oak was confused, confused enough that anyone reading this (including me, Pigeoncracker) has no clue what they were talking about.

Serena shook her head. "It _is_ possible. Tell me, Professor Krane, have you actually looked at the SD-1 virus?"

Professor Krane sighed. "Yes, I know what it looks like. And it's true, the protein coat and lipid membrane are actually mixed together to protect its gene. . . ."

"And that was it," Serena stated matter-of-factly. "Now, this was the reason why the virus immediately and mysteriously vaporized from the Pokémon's body right after its heart was closed. It was set to self-destruct after completely infecting the Pokémon. They created it that way because they were expecting the virus to become unstable and destroy itself after it had completely turned the Pokémon into a Shadow Pokémon.

"And because of that reason, the immune system scanned and recognized the virus's molecules and genetic information after the virus self-destructs, and thus making it easier for the white cells to destroy them. The other reason why a Pokémon that has been cured after being infected with SD-1 Virus becomes immune was that the heart of the Pokémon became stronger, far stronger than usual. This was caused by a strong friendship with their relatives, families, and friends."

"How can the friendship between Pokémon and their Trainer come into a play here?" Professor Hastings asked.

Serena simply grinned. "The main strengths of our heart are willpower, feelings, and love. When the SD-1 Virus infects a Pokémon's heart, it closes all feelings of compassion while boosting its willpower so it can still survive. After being purified and cured from the virus, its heart will be immune to it, thus preventing the virus to ever close its feeling for love again."

"Now, the SD-2 Virus. This one is a special case," Serena began, adopting a more serious tone. "When the SD-1 Virus combined bits of the Missingno.'s remains, it mutated into a living cell. This was a near impossible thing in the science world. A virus isn't supposed to be a living cell; it's a crystal that can only replicate itself inside a living cell."

"However, that great discovery came with a great price." Serena pulled out a picture from nowhere, baffling the scientists even more. "The mutated virus begin eating the other cells while replicating itself, replacing its position with the current cells. The mutated virus began to spread through the body, replacing the healthy cells with the mutated virus's cells."

Everyone stared at the picture. It was a picture of a couple of cells. They realized that it was a picture of a Pokémon's blood samples seen through a microscope. Some black bacteria-like blobs were eating the healthy red cells, a white cell at the center fighting the black blobs away. The white cell didn't look healthy, and there were more black blobs than the other healthy cells.

"This is the SD-2 Virus." Serena pointed to the black bacteria-like blobs. Then, she pointed to the unnatural red cells. "This is a cell that was infected with the virus." Then, she pointed to the unhealthy white cell. "This is a white cell trying to fight the SD-2 Virus. But instead of simply destroying the cells, the mutated virus managed to overpower them and begin eating them from the inside."

"Then what about the Pokémon's heart?" Professor Oak asked her. Serena grimaced, obviously reliving some unpleasant memories.

"SD-2 Virus not only infects their hearts, but also infects their minds and bodies. This closed their abilities to feel, love, and form any rational thought, turning them into mindless fighters that wouldn't hesitate to kill. The virus modified their willpower and minds, slowly turning them into the Shadow Pokémon that we know now." She gestured to the Shadow Chespin.

The Shadow Chespin was scratching the glass of the containment it was in, trying to get to them. It used Crunch on the reinforced window after it got bored of trying to scratch it, but to no avail.

"Now, the reason why Shadow Pokémon reject the purification once they've been fully infected is because they have completely lost themselves. They have closed the door to feeling anything or forming any rational thought. Essentially, they go insane, making them even more vulnerable and far easier for the virus to change their logic. The only advantage that we can use to kill the affected Pokémon is that they are far weaker than Shadow Pokémon but still stronger than a normal Pokémon. This was caused by the corruption of the Pokérus Stain inside their genetic material. The virus will change Pokémon's logic and minds only to focus with the body's survival, thus turning them into what we call 'zombies.'

"Now, it is true that you can purify the infected Pokémon with a Purifying Chamber; however, when a Pokémon infected with SD-2 is purified with a Purifying Chamber, it does not become immune. It becomes more resistant from the virus infection."

"Preposterous! We have checked and double-checked that cured Pokémon cannot be infected with the virus again!" Professor Krane cried out.

Serena simply crossed her arms, smirking slightly. "Do you want to prove that fact, Professor?"

"What do you mean?" Krane replied, confused. Serena simply grinned.

"Well, we have a Shadow Pokémon in the chamber here. Why don't you purify it and see if Satoshi can infect him?" She gestured towards Ash, who simply looked at her finger as if it was the craziest thing since bread sandwiches.

"WHAT?!" they all exclaimed in shock.

Serena only chuckled at their reaction. "Of course! Did you think the P-Dex was wrong about Ash having the SD-2 Virus inside his body? For a Pokémon Professor, you need to put a lot more faith in your own invention, Professor Krane."

Professor Krane blushed a little, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Well, uh . . . I really don't believe that Ash here has the SD-2 Virus inside his body without it even affecting him. . . ."

"The real question is: how and why isn't he affected by the virus?" Professor Hastings demanded.

Serena unfolded her arms. "Before we get on that, I am going to show you proof that a Pokémon cured with the Purifying Chamber is not immune to the virus, but more resistant. Professor Oak, would you kindly purify the Shadow Chespin?"

Professor Oak complied. He clicked the "Cure" button, and the tube began to glow white. After a few seconds, the glow died down and they could see a healthy Chespin staring back at them. Professor Oak opened the tube and Chespin squealed, jumping into Professor Oak's arms. Serena grabbed the Chespin from him and then offered it to Ash.

"W-what do you want me to do?" Ash asked, surprised and very confused. Serena moved the Chespin even closer until it was inches from his face.

"Bite him," Serena replied. "Try not to tear his arm off. I know you normally wouldn't, but the virus does affect you. The moment you bite him, I expect that you should have a rush of pleasure, and then you'll automatically want to bite this cute little guy again. So, for the sake of the sanity in this room, don't."

Ash understandably hesitated. He stared to the innocent-looking Chespin in front of him, then looked at Serena and saw that she was entirely serious. "I don't think I can bite him, Serena."

Serena rolled her eyes. "Come on, Satoshi, just one small bite."

"_I don't think it's a good idea, Mistress,_" Wafiyyah cautioned, frowning. Lucy just elbowed her in response.

"_Shut up. Mistress here is trying to make a point," _she hissed, not wanting anyone to offend her "mistress."

Ash just stared at the Chespin, and the Chespin stared right back, smiling cutely the whole time, and then sighed. "How do I get into positions like this?" he muttered to himself, and then he straightened his back and looked at Serena. "Fine, I'll do it. Just don't blame me if everything goes wrong."

He doubtfully grabbed the Chespin's hand, looking at it as if it was the last thing he wanted to put between his teeth. Ash sighed, brought the Chespin's hand up to his mouth, and then bit it lightly.

True to Serena's prediction, Ash felt quite the opposite of what he expected. He felt elated, not disgusted that he had just bitten something. He could feel himself bite down even further, even though all he wanted was a small, light snap. He drew blood. When the body fluid entered his mouth, he practically moaned in pleasure.

Ash had to force himself not to tear into the flesh. The only reason he didn't was because Serena warned him of it; otherwise, he would've probably taken the whole arm. He wiped his mouth free of saliva, albeit shakily, and quickly dropped the Chespin's hand.

"I don't t-think I want to bite a-anymore living things," Ash coughed out, his voice slightly raspy from the blood running down his throat. Unbeknownst to him and everyone in the room except Serena, his eyes flashed red for a second before immediately going back to their original state.

Ash almost apologized profusely when he saw the hurt look on the Chespin's face. It was heartbreaking to him that he had to hurt an innocent creature just to prove an Arceus' point, but it was necessary.

"Now," Serena continued on as if she hadn't seen a thing, ''Ash, scan the Chespin with the P-Dex." They both had noticed the surrounding area around the wound become slightly darker in color.

Ash pointed the P-Dex to the now injured Chespin. They heard the same line as before, expecting it to say that it was still free of the virus; however, they were very surprised when it said otherwise. The Chespin was now infected with the virus SD-2 again with a spread of two percent.

"Now explain how this can happen! How can he infect another living Pokémon?!" Solana demanded, glaring at Serena. Serena glared right back, making her flinch.

"I will explain it to you. Nevertheless, please try not to demand anything from me. I'm not a witch."

"Well, you certainly act like one," Ash muttered, clearly amused. However, his amusement was quickly replaced with pain as Serena stamped on his foot. "Ow!" he ground out in a squeaky tone.

Serena put the infected Chespin back into the tube and Professor Oak quickly closed it, making sure it wouldn't harm them while the machine recharged. Serena sighed and clapped her hands together in preparation for telling them her explanation.

"When the SD-2 Virus tried to infect him, his immune system and the Pokérus Virus inside his body did not fight back for reasons best left alone. Instead, it worked like a vaccination. Coincidentally, the Pokérus Virus also mutated into a cell and became even stronger, increasing his training potent up to one hundred times more and increased his resistance to almost all kinds of diseases, both Pokémon and human. Because he has had Pokérus and SD-2 inside his body for over five years, he became a carrier of both viruses."

Everyone looked at Ash, who squirmed under the attention. "That explains some things about me." Then he frowned. "But how do I get rid of the SD-2 virus?"

"You can't." Serena shook her head. "The virus has already become one with your body. It is impossible to remove the virus from your body without killing you in the process. It will keep changing you and increasing your power and strength as long as you keep training your body, mind, and soul. Furthermore, you can prevent the virus from infecting others."

"Well . . . I have no problem with Pokérus. So how can I prevent SD-2 from infecting someone?" Ash asked.

Serena smiled. "To suppress the SD-2 Virus inside your body, all you need to do is just will it not to release any viral substances." Everyone stared at her in confusion. Serena sighed. "I'll teach it to you later."

"So . . . to put it simply . . . Satoshi is the host and carrier of Pokérus and SD-2 Virus, is that correct?" Professor Hastings enquired.

Serena nodded. "That's right. You don't have to worry about that. Unless Satoshi wills it, he won't infect anyone around him."

"_Well, you certainly do__n't__ have to worry about it. But we're Pokémon here,_" Aya warned as she took a step back.

"You're don't have to worry about it, Aya. Satoshi couldn't infect you, nor any other Pokémon that he's close with, even if he wished to do so."

"What do you mean?" Professor Oak queried.

Serena turned to him and launched into another discussion. "Ash has had Pokérus and SD-2 inside his body for years, long enough for the viruses to evolve into something far more powerful and more destructive than before. The virus inside his body is strong enough that it is able to become airborne with only a single breath."

"However, because it was too powerful, it considered its weaker form as an enemy. This was caused by the evolution of its genetic materials. Because of his body's immunity to the virus, the virus's adaptation to the resistance, and some . . . _collaboration_ from outside, it has changed their purpose to another course. The Pokérus gives more energy for training, and the SD-2 Virus became protective of its host."

"And who is this . . . outside collaboration?" Professor Hastings asked. Serena frowned, not wanting to delve into the more sensitive information that the question required to answer.

"It is still unknown," Serena lied, "but I am sure that someone has been tampering with the viruses inside his body, preventing them from breaking down and destroying everything inside him." It was a half-truth, actually. She was the one that helped Ash survive his condition.

"Anyway, because of this change, the viruses changed his mind and body, ultimately changing his personality and instincts, as well as changing and creating new organs to help his survival."

"What changed about me?" Ash fretted, worried that something bad had happened.

Serena hummed in thought. "Well, you may not have noticed, but you've become colder and more secretive lately. You have become even more possessive than before, and you've become ruthless and sadistic when training and battling. This was caused by the fuse of both viruses with your heart and mind. If you're asking about your biological change . . . the virus modified your salivary gland, adding the deadly venom of SD-2 and liquefied Neurotoxin. It also created an extra vein from your salivary gland to your canines. You should notice that they're more akin to fangs instead of normal teeth."

Everyone stared at Ash, who frowned under their gaze. He turned to Professor Oak and politely asked for his mirror, one that he knew Oak always kept in his pocket.

Professor Oak pulled out his personal mirror, handing it over to Ash. It was a simple square mirror with black plastic on its edges. Ash opened his mouth and used the mirror to check if Serena's words were true. He could see that his canines were slightly longer than usual. . . . Everyone stared at the now obvious fangs.

'_No wonder I kept biting myself __. . .__' _Ash mused, fingering the newly discovered teeth. They didn't have any reflective surfaces in the Hall of Origin, not to mention that he spent most of his time as an Arceus and fangs just seemed natural in that form.

"Now," Serena continued, garnering their attention, "his senses have also become sharper, one of the advantages he gained from this virus. It also gained entrance to his lungs and heart, allowing the virus to infect and latch onto the exhaled carbon dioxide and oxygen, and through that allowed the virus to become airborne outside the body. Though you don't have to be worried about it, since the amount of the virus exhaled is extremely small, small enough that it'll take at least months for the virus to infect Pokémon close to him. Although the Pokémon needs to be close with him for months in order for the virus to latch on them. The virus can only survive airborne for thirty minutes. After that, it becomes unstable and self-destructs on its own; you don't have to worry about a sudden pandemic."

"It also could cause those around him to develop an immunity," Serena continued. "When Ash's Pokémon inhaled the airborne SD-2 Virus, they were supposed to be infected by it; however, thanks to their friendship and loyalty to Ash, they gained the immunity as soon as the virus latched into their bodies. Additionally, they also gained Pokérus."

Ash frowned and pointed the P-Dex at Delano. It dinged as it showed a picture of a Zoroark. _**"Pokémon Detected. Scanning **__**. . .**__** International Pok**__**é**__**dex Number 571: Zoroark. The Illusion Fox Pokémon. Each has the ability to fool a large group of people simultaneously. They protect their lair with illusory scenery.**_ _**Stories say those who tried to catch Zoroark were trapped in an illusion and punished. This Pokémon is **__**m**__**ale. This Pokémon has the **__**A**__**bility Illusion. This Pokémon is level 100. This Pokémon is **__**six foot, one inch **__**and weighs one hundred one kilograms. This Pokémon is thirteen years old. This Pokémon knows thirty-nine different moves. Ash Satoshi Ketchum has owned this**__** P**__**okémon for four **__**y**__**ears. This Pokémon is immune to the virus SD-2. Warning**__**—**__**this Pokémon is a host of Pokérus. This Pokémon is extremely powerful; please take precaution when approaching it."**_

Delano snorted. "_Although what the P-Dex __e__ntry said is true, I didn't use illusions on Ash when he caught me with his Pok__é__B__all__._"

Professor Oak simply frowned. "I really need to do more research about the Pokérus Virus later on. . . ." he muttered.

Ash hummed, "Well, this P-Dex certainly is useful. . . ."

"Now that we have figured out what this Shadow Pokémon problem was, I think we should be going now," Solana stated. "We thank you for your collaboration with us in this matter, Professor Oak. Now we can warn the public of this new kind of Shadow Pokémon."

"Ah, yes, no problem. It was actually Professor Sycamore who subdued them," Professor Oak replied with smile.

Ash frowned and then asked, "Speaking of Professor Sycamore . . . where is he?"

"_Professor Sycamore is busy in the Pokémon Center doing paperwork for the injured Pokémon,_" Delano answered him. "_I don't think he will come back here until tomorrow morning._"

"Well, we certainly have a fair amount of injuries since the attack. . . ." Professor Oak muttered. He checked his watch. "Ah, it's eight p.m. already. Would you like to have lunch with us before you depart? Kalos makes remarkable food."

"We'd love to!" Solana said as she clapped her hands together. However, before she could continue her remark, Serena cut her off.

"Before we take off from this room, I would like to tell you that whatever I explained regarding Satoshi is strictly confidential. I would like you to keep his condition a secret."

"Sure. We understand your circumstances." Solana nodded.

Professor Oak nodded too. "Well, that's settled. Let's go, gentlemen. I know a good restaurant close to this lab."

* * *

_**To be continued ...**_


End file.
